Fiera Milano Rho, 3 October 2017
FS Italiane Group revenues from international activities are up by 25%, one year on from the presentation of the 2017-2026 Industrial Plan. This result confirms the alignment to international development plans, one of the five strategic pillars outlined in the FS Italiane Group policy document. The Industrial Plan forecasts doubling the revenues from activities abroad: increasing from 1 to 4.2 billion Euros at the end of the period, consolidating the 26% in 2026 compared to 13% in 2016. This result is already beginning to materialise; in fact, the first forecasts are predicting revenues of 1.4 billion (from 13% to 17%), thanks to the acquisitions made in 2017 (c2c in the UK, Trainose in Greece and QBuzz in the Netherlands).
These are the figures that emerged during the conference on "The internationalisation of the rail market: FS Group challenges" held as part of Expo Ferroviaria 2017, in collaboration with the Italian College of Railway Engineers (CIFI).
The conference was opened by Graziano Delrio, Minister of Infrastructures and Transport, along with Gioia Ghezzi, President of FS Italiane.
During the conference, Renato Mazzoncini, CEO of FS Italiane, recalled how the approval of the fourth railway package will enable the creation of a single European market with equal opportunities and shared rules, but also more competition among the main European railway companies.
Maurizio Gentile, CEO of Rete Ferroviaria Italiana and President of CIFI, illustrated the investment programme for European corridors and ongoing interventions on the national network, to connect Italy to the rest of Europe.
The other top managers of the FS Italiane Group, supported by authoritative international representatives, discussed two important issues at stake for the world of transport, logistics and goods in the continent.
Orazio Iacono, the new CEO of Trenitalia, and Tim Flear, British Consul-General in Italy, addressed the issue of the potential and benefits in connection with investments in the United Kingdom, starting from the experience of the c2c franchise, the largest rail company dedicated to commuters operating between London and Essex. C2c was acquired permanently by Trenitalia in February 2017, through its subsidiary Trenitalia UK.
Marco Gosso, CEO of Mercitalia Logistics, and Stefano Brandizzi, Production and Transport Planning Manager at Colgate Palmolive Italy, focused instead on international freight transport, analysing the market from the point of view of demand and supply.
Afterwards, Carlo Carganico, CEO of Italferr, and Mario Virano, CEO of TELT, focused on economic and industrial development opportunities offered by the new plan for the Silk Roads, which see our country in a privileged position to connect the Far East with the West.
Stefano Rossi, CEO of Busitalia Sita Nord, and Gerrit Spijksma, CFO of QBuzz, illustrated the FS Group's development programmes for the Netherlands, after the acquisition of the third leading public transport operator in the country, by focusing on the concept of collective integrated mobility, one of the five pillars of the FS 2017–2026 Business Plan.
In the last panel of the conference, Carmine Zappacosta, CEO of Italcertifer, Tommie Johansson and Cosimo Affuso from AutoHaul, a company providing automatic rail transport services, starting from the FS Italiane certification company's international experiences, discussed the added value of the evaluation of third party transportation systems worldwide.