CERNOBBIO, Italy (Reuters) – Italian railways operator Ferrovie dello Stato will study whether to seek outside investors, including through a potential bourse listing, its newly appointed chief executive said on Saturday.

Asked about a possible stock market flotation of the state-owned group, CEO Stefano Donnarumma said this was a possibility within a wider range of options to attract fresh capital and finance investments.

“I am ready to consider opening up the company’s capital to investors … a bourse listing is usually a consequence of such a process. I wouldn’t speak of flotation per se, but of opening up the capital,” he said on the sidelines of the TEHA business forum.

Donnarumma, the former CEO of power grid Terna, said his experience in the regulated infrastructure business had taught him there were advantages in having private shareholders who can help fund investments.

“It’s not an obligation, the decision is the state’s to take. And it’s not like I’ve been brought in to oversee a privatisation,” he said. “It was studied before my arrival, and I plan to go over that study in the coming weeks as we work on our strategy and see how it fits with them.

“The management’s job is to come up with strategies and propose them. The shareholder will decide,” he added.

Donnarumma said he hoped to have a clearer idea on the group by the end of 2024 but any process to bring in private investors would likely require a couple of years.

(Reporting by Elvira Pollina; Writing by Valentina Za; Editing by David Holmes)