The head of the Italian association said there were no plans for companies to leave

Italian enterprises remain in Russia, despite the enormous difficulties in their work, Vittorio Torrembini, president of the Association of Italian Entrepreneurs in Russia, told RBC. The Russian market remains interesting,

Italian companies do not plan to leave the Russian market, there are plans for new investments, Vittorio Torrembini, President of the Association of Italian Entrepreneurs in Russia, told RBC. Recently, according to him, only two firms have sold the business, one of them is a large state-owned company Enel, the other had such plans for a long time. “Except for companies from the oil and gas sector, everyone stayed. Some reduced the number of employees, but no one left Russia,” Torrembini said during the industrial exhibition “Innoprom. Central Asia" in Tashkent.

Companies remaining to operate in Russia face significant difficulties, says the president of the association. “The difficulties are huge - logistical, financial, in the banking sector, the pressure they receive from the authorities in Italy and Europe. But nevertheless, our firms are strong enough not to be affected by the restrictions,” Torrembini said. “Russia is a big market, it has geopolitical and geo-economic significance. This is not Nepal, this is Russia,” he explains the interest of Italian companies in maintaining a presence in Russia.

According to Torrembini, there are several companies that plan to invest in Russia in industries such as building materials and food. “I can’t say who, of course, but we have three or four companies even preparing investments,” he said.

More than a hundred Italian enterprises of large, medium and small businesses operate in Russia.

The Italian energy company Enel in October completed the sale of its 56.43% stake in Enel Russia to LUKOIL and the Gazprombank-Freesia fund for a total amount of about €137 million. Thus, Enel sold all its generating capacities in Russia : 5.6 GW conventional power and 300 MW wind power.

At the end of February last year, 2,400 subsidiaries of 1,400 companies from the EU and G7 countries worked in the country. From the beginning of the Russian special military operation in February last year until the end of 2022, 8.5% of these companies left Russia, economists Simon Evenett from the University of St. Gallen and Niccolò Pisani from the IMD business school calculated in a study quoted by Forbes magazine . Among the departed, about 18% are subsidiaries from the United States , 15% from Japan, 8.3% from the European Union, among the remaining 19.5% are companies from Germany, 12.4% are from companies from the USA.

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According to another study conducted by the Russian Center for Strategic Research, as of early September 2022, 34% of the largest foreign companies operating in Russia limited their activities in the country, 15% decided to leave it through the transfer of a Russian division to a new owner, and 7% declared full leaving the domestic market without selling the business. Foreign companies that have limited their activities in Russia or announced they are leaving have lost $200-240 billion since the end of February 2022, the CSR calculated (data for last fall).

Foreign companies that have stayed in Russia can count on comfortable working conditions, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said in March. “Despite all the restrictions, the denial of property rights, the discriminatory measures that Russian business faced in the West, foreign companies have worked and work comfortably with us,” he said. Companies that left Russia did not fight for their interests, Russian President Vladimir Putin reported .