Poste Italiane signs partnership deal in Kuwait
Poste Italiane is looking to expand its business in the Middle East, particularly with countries in the Persian Gulf area. The Italian national postal operator has put pen to paper on a cooperation deal with Alghanim Group in Kuwait, one of the largest privately-owned companies in the Gulf region, which has various business interests including ecommerce, shipping and logistics.
The two companies have already been working together, but the deal will see closer working to bring Poste Italiane’s expertise to help the region develop its postal services, logistics and financial services.
In particular, Poste Italiane said there will be cooperation in the development of digital applications and IT platforms for companies in the Alghanim Group.
The partnership should also help Poste Italiane to develop its own services in areas like “ethical finance” – with one project under the programme set to study possibilities for setting up the kind of financial and investment services that would be appropriate to, for example, Muslims living in Italy.
Poste Italiane said this was a growing area in the financial sector.
“Opportunities”
The company said the Alghanim Group’s business activities are so diverse – including fields like energy, telecommunications, defense, construction, property, healthcare, aviation and vehicles as well as logistics and transport – that there should be “ample opportunities” for working together with Poste Italiane.
Poste Italiane’s chief executive Massimo Sarmi, who was in Kuwait City to sign the deal earlier this month, said: “This agreement represents an important opportunity to broaden the scope of our collaboration and provide the expertise of Poste Italiane in logistics, postal and financial markets in the Persian Gulf, where we have already initiated collaborative projects with Saudi Arabia.”
Sarmi said Poste Italiane had a long history in providing financial services based on principles of security, transparency and simplicity, and that this could inspire the development of a new generation of innovative and popular products.
“We have joined with great interest the proposal of Alghanim Group to establish a study to asses the creation of a range of ethical products aimed at the immigrant community in Italy,” said the Poste Italiane CEO.
Poste Italiane said the deal with Alghanim Group confirmed its international reputation in the field of technological innovation and development of financial services. One of Europe’s most profitable postal operators at the moment, the company is currently sharing its expertise in Russia, Egypt, Albania, and the Lebanon, and is also involved in the Euromed union of 14 postal operators around the Mediterranean seeking to develop new postal platforms.
