Italgas: 7.8Bn Euro investment plan to 2029: doubles commitment in the water sector
EUR 115 million will be invested in companies operating in Lazio, Campania and Sicily. The Group will come to serve, directly and indirectly, 6.2 million people
Innovation, growth and sustainability, with the stated ultimate goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. These are the fundamental guidelines of Italgas’ Strategic Plan 2023-2029′, presented to analysts and investors in London. In order to achieve its targets, the new plan, which according to CEO Paolo Gallo ‘should be understood before evaluating it’ because it is more complicated than the previous ones, envisages total investments of EUR 7.8 billion, mainly dedicated to the development of gas distribution assets and activities in Italy and Greece, energy efficiency activities, and development in the water sector.
And it is precisely in the latter sector that the Group expects to ‘seize further growth opportunities’. Especially in light of the recent agreements for the acquisition of Veolia’s assets, for which approximately EUR 115 million are earmarked, in companies operating in Lazio, Campania and Sicily. With this operation, the Group will come to serve, directly and indirectly, 6.2 million people, about 10% of the Italian population. But the objective is even more ambitious: the commitment in the water sector is doubled, with more than EUR 400 million for selected M&A operations and the application to water networks of technologies developed in the gas distribution sector. Great attention was also paid to energy efficiency, with the confirmation of the planned investment of more than EUR 300 million for the development of the Group’s ESCo. A total of 800 million euro is dedicated to business diversification.
Meanwhile, Italgas is proceeding with its network digitisation strategy, so as to be increasingly ready to manage the energy sources of the future. EUR 4.6 billion are planned for the development and upgrade of the Italian gas distribution network. Of this, 1.6 billion (100 million more than in the previous Plan) is earmarked for the continuation of the network transformation programmes, with the aim of having a fully digitalised network as early as 2024. The goal is to create the conditions to connect around 400 biomethane plants to the Italian and Greek distribution network. The same happens in Greece: after the purchase of Depa Infrastructure in 2022, the Plan allocates EUR 0.9 billion to the extension of the network and its digital transformation.