Italy's FS state railways look to foreign network to help drive growth

By Giulia ‌Segreti

ROME, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Italy's state-owned railways Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) aims to strengthen its international ‍network in ‌coming years, with further investment in the network and on new trains, its chief executive ⁠said on Thursday.

After launching its FS International group ‌last year, which groups together its foreign businesses, CEO Stefano Donnarumma said that the unit plans to reach a break-even point in 2027. 

The company, one of Europe's largest rail groups, plans to increase its international ⁠passengers by 50% by 2030, after seeing a 15% rise in the number of people travelling abroad on its trains ​in the past year.

The rail group's international business has also attracted ‌the interest of some foreign investment funds, "something ⁠that would have been impossible in the past years", Donnarumma said, speaking in Rome at the group's strategy update. 

"This is important, as it will not take funds away from Italy," ​he added.  

FS plans between 10 and 12 trains dedicated to a high-speed service connecting London and Paris, which it expects to begin in 2029. 

In Germany - "a very profitable market" according to Donnarumma - the group aims to launch high-speed services, in competition with state-owned Deutsche Bahn, by end-2029 or ​early ‍2030. 

In addition, the company is now ​looking at the Paris-Brussels route, currently served by France's SNCF, and is examining possible partnerships in the U.S.

MORE INVESTMENTS COMING DOWN THE LINE 

FS said it invested 18 billion euros ($21.1 billion) in the past year, mostly on its 17,000-kilometre-long network, 7 billion euros of which from European post-pandemic funds. 

"It's been an epic effort," Donnarumma said.

The group is the single largest beneficiary in Italy of European ⁠post-pandemic funds, with a total of 25 billion euros. Of these 18 billion euros have already been spent to date, with the remaining ​7 billion euros of investments to be made in the next year. 

Over the five years of its current strategy FS - which employs more than 96,000 people and runs nearly 10,000 trains a day - sees 100 billion euros in investments.    

The group confirmed on Thursday ‌its 2029 targets, with 20 billion euros of revenues, a core profit of 3.5 billion euros and a net profit of 500 million euros. ($1 = 0.8535 euros)

(Reporting by Giulia SegretiEditing by Keith Weir)