From left: The Ambassador of Italy to Malaysia Massimo Rustico; CDP head of international markets development Laurent Franciosi, Khazanah executive director and head of private markets Geoff Lee Seng Chow and Italian deputy minister of enterprises and Made in Italy Valentino Valentini.
KUALA LUMPUR: Khazanah Nasional Bhd and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti Group (CDP Group) have entered into a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a four-year term.
In a statement, the sovereign wealth fund said the MoU aims to explore and evaluate investment and cooperation opportunities primarily in the two markets.
The agreement was signed for the CDP Group by the subsidiaries CDP Equity, Fondo Italiano di Investimento SGR, CDP Venture Capital SGR and Simest.
“The MoU is set to strengthen economic, trade and industrial relations between Italy and Malaysia, promoting investments between the two countries both by supporting Italian companies interested in expanding their business in Asean region and by supporting the entry and presence of Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, Khazanah and its subsidiaries in the Italian market,” Khazanah said.
The agreement, the first of its kind between Italy and Malaysia, also stipulates that Khazanah is open to evaluating potential investment opportunities in companies in CDP Equity’s portfolio as well as to cooperate with Fondo Italiano d'Investimento SGR and CDP Venture Capital SGR to analyse potential collaboration opportunities with Italian companies and/or groups with significant businesses in Europe or in Malaysia.
Whereas CDP, through SIMEST, and Khazanah will mainly focus on analysing potential investment opportunities in Malaysian subsidiaries of Italian companies and/or groups. This signifies Italian business network’s readiness to strengthen economic relations with Asean nations including Malaysia, by exploring investment opportunities in the country.
“Through this partnership, we are able to jointly facilitate and establish further opportunities for Italian enterprises currently investing or willing to invest in Malaysia, and vice versa, enhancing the economic strength and resilience of both nations,” Khazanah managing director Datuk Amirul Feisal Wan Zahir said.
“Khazanah’s international investments span a wide range of asset classes and markets. As the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, we strategically align these investments with global megatrends and emerging technologies, serving the twin goals of growing our portfolio value and facilitating flows of knowledge, networks and investment opportunities to Malaysia. In this respect, we are very much looking forward to benefitting from our partnership with CDP who is one of the leading European Sovereign Funds.” he added.
Meanwhile, CDP investment director and chief executive officer Francesco Mele said: "The four-year non-binding agreement signed by the CDP Group with Khazanah represents an important milestone in the process of strengthening relations with international institutional investors, fostering both the potential growth of Italian companies in Southeast Asia and the possible entry of a new player with proven experience and capital strength to boost the development of the Italian ecosystem".
