The Russian president Vladimir Putin is visiting Rome. After meeting Pope Francis and Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, the number one of the Kremlin headed for the Quirinal for an interview with the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella. Immediately after Putin, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte will have a meeting.
The arrival of the Russian president, as expected, was the occasion for the signing of a series of economic agreements and for meetings between the main Italian and Russian companies. There are two main ones, the one between Cassa Depositi e Prestiti and RDIF, and the one between FS Italiane and the Russian Railways.
In detail, the CEO of CDP, Fabrizio Palermo, signed a cooperation agreement with Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), together with Alessandra Ricci, CEO of SIMEST, which with SACE forms the export and internationalization hub of the CDP Group, and Carlo Mammola, CEO of Fondo Italiano d'Investimento SGR, who manages closed-end investment funds focused on supporting innovation and the competitiveness of the Italian industrial system.
The agreement aims to promote the economic cooperation between Italy and Russia, through co-investments and co-financing to support Italian companies with current or prospective operations in Russia, aiming mainly at supporting SMEs. "It is estimated that the total amount of the co-investment and co-financing transactions covered by the agreement could potentially exceed 300 million euros in the next three years", reads the joint note from the companies.
RDIF will evaluate with SIMEST potential co-investments in Russian companies controlled by Italian companies, and with Fondo Italiano d'Investimento SGR co-investment opportunities – as a minority investor – in Italian companies aiming to expand on the Russian market.
For State Railways, the ceo Gianfranco Battisti met in Rome the number one of RZD (Rossijskie Železnye Dorogi, the Russian Railways) to talk about strengthening the consolidated engineering relationships and existing operational projects.
The collaboration between the FS Italiane Group and the Russian Railways was activated through previous agreements between the respective subsidiaries. In detail last April Italferr, a subsidiary of FS Italiane, has signed two important contracts with RZD International (a subsidiary of Russian Railways) on behalf of a consortium of Italian companies. The contracts, worth a total of approximately 4,8 million euros, concern technical assistance, design verification and works supervision of the Belgrade – Novi Sad railway line (in Serbia) and technical assistance, design verification and the supervision of the works of the new central post in Belgrade for the management and control of railway traffic on the Serbian railway network. At the same juncture, Italcertifer, the Group's certification company, follows the certification processes for the new Moscow – Kazan and Moscow – St. Petersburg high-speed railway lines. In the end FS International, in June 2019, promoted meetings with RZD and the Hungarian Railways (MAV) for the construction of a new Trieste - Moscow Corridor for railway connections between Italy and Russia through Slovenia, Hungary and Ukraine, with continuation towards China.
