CDP on a mission to the Gulf to meet with sovereign wealth funds and the business community

Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The mission, which gets underway this week and is led by Chief Executive Dario Scannapieco, takes the CDP Group to the Gulf’s main financial and industrial hubs with a cross-functional delegation – comprising representatives from investments, business, international cooperation and investor relations – to meet with sovereign wealth funds, institutional and private investors, economic and financial authorities, banks, development funds and the local business community. The joint presence of CDP and SIMEST, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and local ambassadors, enables the full financial spectrum to be covered: equity and co-investments, exports and internationalisation, business matching, industrial localisation and international cooperation. Bearing in mind that in 2025 Italian exports to GCC countries reached €20.4 billion, an increase of 85 per cent compared with 2019, and during the same period, the GCC’s share of total Italian exports rose from 2.3 per cent in 2019 to 3.2 per cent in 2025.

The Doha leg will combine institutional and financial discussions with a concrete proposal on real assets. The discussions with the Ministry of Finance provide the institutional framework for the economic and financial relationship; meetings with the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and the family offices Al Mirqab and Al Faisal are focused on investments and co-investments, whilst discussions with Il Waddi will enable work on ongoing property opportunities and the assessment of further initiatives in Italia. In Abu Dhabi, Scannapieco is scheduled to hold meetings with senior executives from Mubadala, Imad, the Abu Dhabi Investment Council and Lunate/ALTÉRRA. In addition to investments and co-investments, the focus will also include the issue of Italian companies establishing a presence and growing their operations in the Emirates. Riyadh will see the continuation of the work begun over the past year with the Saudi economic and financial ecosystem. The aim is to formalise two cooperation frameworks, alongside discussions with the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and further talks with local delegations. Finally, Jeddah adds a different dimension to the roadshow compared with the previous stops: development finance for third countries, and discussions with local private equity firms and family groups.

Through its mission in the Gulf, CDP aims, on the one hand, to attract international capital towards Italian opportunities and platforms. On the other hand, it aims to support Italian businesses – large groups, investee companies, SMEs and start-ups – as they grow in the region, by combining financing, export finance, internationalisation tools, equity, real assets and business matching. The roadshow has a third, highly strategic dimension: to build partnerships with development finance institutions in the Gulf to co-finance projects in third countries, with a particular focus on Africa.