Thinking where we were in 2020,
generating 495€M net revenues, and where we are after only two years at 660€M, our growth has
been tremendous. During 2022, I could see that all of RINA’s core markets were growing, and,
indeed, they are showing great potential for many years to come.
We have seen massive activity in Energy, addressing the need for decarbonisation but also in
traditional oil & gas markets to meet growing demands and the need for energy security. In
decarbonisation, we are increasingly recognised as a world leader and a principal voice in the
energy transition. The work we are undertaking towards a hydrogen economy and in decarbonising
shipping, hard-to-abate industries, and transport sectors is of great interest to the general
business community and puts us in a very strong position.
Our Marine business has continued to flourish, with the cruise sector, where we are very
well placed, recovering after the halt during the pandemic. Once again, our fleet has grown at
the fastest rate of all class societies. However, Infrastructure is currently one of the most
significant investment areas worldwide; for the first time, this includes Italy through its PNRR
funding initiative. Indeed, Infrastructure & Mobility has the greatest potential for growth
of all our business units.
In Materials, we are seeing developments that are becoming increasingly important in areas
such as electric vehicles, which require an enormous amount of magnetic steel, where, once
again, we are market leaders. In Defence, where we provide critical software and services,
recent geopolitical events have driven all countries to increase expenditure. In our Real Estate
business, RINA Prime, our M&A activities have borne fruits, and we are seeing real and
exciting opportunities from our ability to offer complete property management
services.
Overall,
I am very positive and optimistic about
our business.
We invested a lot in making RINA a credible
player and now have a good reputation in all our core markets. We have looked
for growth and succeeded. Now is the time to re-focus on our core markets and
how we can add value there. This will come from end-to-end services that
combine all our competencies into a complete solution to benefit our customers
and the RINA business. For example, in infrastructure, we provide inspection
services as well as technical competencies in failure analysis. Currently,
these are separate service offerings in the main, but we need to integrate them
to present our ability to provide complete asset integrity management.
To facilitate optimising the value we add
to clients across all services, we have started to restructure our approach
within RINA Consulting to develop geographical hubs. The first was the UK,
which includes both business development and operations. We have also
established a business development team for the Middle East and India, with
members from all business units, to ensure we provide the full range of
services RINA can offer our clients.
This new frontline approach ensures we
maximise our potential and enables us to be closer to our clients.
We will also concentrate on markets in
geographic areas that have the most significant potential. In the USA, for
example, thanks to the acquisition of Patrick Engineering, we have already
started work to increase our presence to capture the opportunities presented by
the current bipartisan US Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which will
generate growth in all areas of infrastructure. We are also discussing with
‘best-in-class’ partners to develop business potential in the USA jointly.
We are investing internally in our IT ecosystem and cybersecurity, and we also recognise the huge importance of connecting cybersecurity to the services we provide. We are strengthening our position in this area. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been with us for many years, but the explosion of activity in this area will change our way of working. The development we are now seeing in AI systems is remarkable. It offers enormous benefits, such as discharging colleagues from carrying out mundane and routine work, including generating reports or administrative tasks, to focus on value-add activities. We are actively looking at the potential benefits and opportunities this technology could deliver to our business.
Decarbonisation and energy transition are critical elements of our business, for which we are held in high esteem.
We have spoken many times about the need to explore multiple approaches,
incorporating new fuels, technology, and more efficient ways of operating. However,
we need a lot of energy and clean energy, which will not be met by renewable
resources alone.
In the future, Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) offer a new and exciting approach
to nuclear energy. Unlike large-scale, complex nuclear reactors that require
enormous time and investment, SMRs provide a flexible, more readily accepted,
factory-built solution that can solve many of the challenges of the energy
transition. They have the potential to be used offshore or onshore or to power
ships. They can generate ‘pink’ hydrogen, power desalination plants offshore, or
provide energy in areas that are difficult to connect. RINA is well-positioned to
support how SMRs are fitted and define how we use them, and we continue to follow
this technology closely.
Synthetic fuels are another interesting area, with the potential to turn the
issue of what we do with CO2 from carbon capture from a problem into an opportunity.
Combining captured CO2 with green H2 to create synthetic fuels would be an excellent
solution for areas such as aviation, with the massive advantage of requiring no
modification to existing systems, machinery or logistical infrastructure. It is
currently very expensive, but with increased volumes and efficiency, this could
become a reasonably competitive, viable option for the future. Again, RINA is ready
to support the development of this market.
We are investing internally in our IT ecosystem and cybersecurity, and we also recognise the huge importance of connecting cybersecurity to the services we provide. We are strengthening our position in this area. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been with us for many years, but the explosion of activity in this area will change our way of working. The development we are now seeing in AI systems is remarkable. It offers enormous benefits, such as discharging colleagues from carrying out mundane and routine work, including generating reports or administrative tasks, to focus on value-add activities. We are actively looking at the potential benefits and opportunities this technology could deliver to our business.
