Anas joins the FS Italiane Group

FS capital increase approved today through the contribution of the entire shareholding in Anas held by the MEF With around 44,000 kilometres of network in total, Europe's leading integrated rail and road infrastructure hub is created, by inhabitants served and planned investment. With Anas, the FS Italiane Group becomes an industrial group with:

108 billion of investment over ten years 8 billion of investment in 2018 11.2 billion of revenue in 2018 50 billion of invested capital 81,000 employees

At the same time, the new Board of Directors of FS Italiane is appointed, in continuity, with Gioia Ghezzi as Chair and Renato Mazzoncini

The Shareholders' Meeting of Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane today approved the capital increase of 2.86 billion euros through the contribution of the entire shareholding in Anas held by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

With Anas joining alongside Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, the FS Italiane Group becomes Europe's leading integrated rail and road hub by inhabitants served and investment: 108 billion euros over the next ten years.

Within the FS Italiane Group, Anas joins not only RFI but also Italferr, the operating subsidiary for design and engineering in Italy and abroad, and the other companies, including Trenitalia, Mercitalia and Busitalia, which provide rail and road transport (passengers and freight).

The Meeting also appointed the members of the new Board of Directors of FS Italiane. The new Board, in continuity, will consist of Gioia Ghezzi, Chair, Renato Mazzoncini, Simonetta Giordani, Federico Lovadina and Wanda Ternau. Joining the Board are Professor Francesca Moraci, from the Anas Board, and Professor Giovanni Azzone, former Rector and President of the Politecnico di Milano.

The new configuration of the FS Italiane Group

In its new configuration, the FS Italiane Group has an infrastructure network, rail and road, of about 44,000 kilometres. The 2.3 billion vehicles that travel 64.5 billion km every year on the roads and motorways managed by Anas are thus added to the traffic handled by the Group: about 750 million rail passengers a year (150 million of them abroad), 290 million by road (130 million abroad) and 50 million tonnes of freight.

With the contribution of Anas and 81,000 employees, the FS Italiane Group is able to generate revenue of 11.2 billion euros in 2018 and an investment capacity of 8 billion, with invested capital of about 50 billion.

For Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane this is a fundamental step in implementing its 2017-2026 Business Plan. Infrastructure integration, together with integration between the different modes of transport, is one of its five pillars.

For Anas, joining the FS Italiane Group is a further stage in the transformation process already under way in recent years. Anas will thus be able to take decisive steps towards the market dimension it needs in order to move progressively outside the perimeter of the Public Administration.

The contribution of Anas to FS Italiane will also make it possible to design and build roads and railways in an integrated way, progressively reducing extra costs and generating savings thanks to the coordinated development of the works. It will also make it possible to share know-how and technologies, including for the development of innovative projects such as smart roads, to be built in Italy and abroad.

The new industrial structure will also bring benefits and improvements in maintenance and in the quality and safety standards of the road network. Starting with the surveillance of the roadway and of engineering structures which, especially along the more than 10,000 km where road and rail infrastructure run side by side, can be carried out jointly by the staff of Rete Ferroviaria Italiana and Anas. This will significantly improve management services, reducing first-response and restoration times.

Operational integration will also be possible for predictive diagnostics. RFI and Anas will share the systems (laser scanners, drones) used to check the structural safety of bridges and tunnels and to monitor hydrogeological instability. Sharing methods and operating procedures will lead to greater safety in operation.

Integration between rail and road

The synergy between the rail and road networks will make it possible to respond concretely to the country's need for new infrastructure, as well as ensuring coordinated management of the works and a single point of contact for local authorities.

Coordination between Rete Ferroviaria Italiana and Anas will, among other things, make it possible to connect logistics hubs more effectively and efficiently: ports, airports, railway stations, modal interchange points. All this with less land take, lower CO2 emissions and a different approach to freight logistics. Integration will in fact start from the planning of investments and works, defining rail and road infrastructure needs according to a single design.

It has been estimated that the integrated management of infrastructure alone will produce operating savings of no less than 400 million euros over ten years. This will be possible thanks to the rationalisation of direct costs (for example, coordinating maintenance work and managing hydrogeological and seismic risks) and indirect costs, with lower management costs and synergies in infrastructure maintenance policies.

Joining the Group will allow Anas to continue developing its staff and to speed up the recruitment plan already launched, thanks to the gradual easing of the limits set by Public Administration legislation.

Investment in Italy

The integrated infrastructure hub will also have positive effects on the quantity and quality of tenders. In 2018 RFI and Italferr expect to confirm the 2017 trend, which saw the value of published calls for tender rise from 3.5 billion in 2016 to 7.5 billion. Anas, likewise, will go up to 3 billion euros in 2018, from 2 billion in 2017. This will lead to a significant increase in open construction sites and, consequently, benefits for the construction sector and positive effects on the country's economy as a whole.

The new Programme Contract between Anas and the State, clearer and more efficient, will allow the Company to increase its investment capacity further. Anas will also double the volume of planned maintenance work, such as road surfacing, new safety barriers, LED lighting systems and viaduct rehabilitation.

Shorter construction times may also be expected thanks to the operational and management coordination of the new integrated hub, a fundamental condition for the proper development of the country's infrastructure.

A single entity for infrastructure abroad

The benefits of integration will also be felt immediately on international markets. Through FS Italiane, the Italian system will be able to present itself abroad as an entity capable of covering the full range of works and services related to mobility infrastructure.

The FS Italiane 2017-2026 Business Plan foresees growth in total revenue from international activities (from 13% to 23%), rising from one billion euros to 4.2 billion in 2026. Priority areas for international expansion are the Middle East, India and South-East Asia, the Americas and Africa.

In recent years Anas has also gained international weight, with contracts worth 150 million euros, 70 million of which from the recent award of the concession for the M4 motorway in Russia, and a potential increase in revenue of about 90 million in the short term.

The most innovative technologies

Knowledge transfer and the sharing of best practices will foster innovation. It will be possible to install on the road network the technologies already used by Rete Ferroviaria Italiana to manage rail traffic, developing the so-called smart roads, on which Anas is already working. Intelligent roads that can be used by electric lorries and driverless cars, for the benefit of safety and the environment.

Using technology to develop the smart roads of the future will make Italy one of the pioneering countries in this innovation, creating infrastructure such as the Swedish e-Highways which, thanks to signalling, communication and safety systems, can carry electric vehicles. Communication between road and car, with the medium-term prospect of autonomous driving, will also allow road quality to be monitored and viaducts and bridges to be technically inspected.

Read the full article here:https://www.fsitaliane.it/content/fsitaliane/it/media/comunicati-stampa-e-news/2017/12/29/anas-entra-nel-gruppo-fs-italiane.html