Petronas Lubricants chalks up revenue of 1 billion Euro from Italian venture

Petronas Lubricants International (PLI), a wholly-owned unit of PETRONAS, has chalked up a revenue of €1 billion (€1 = RM4.92) from its investment in Italy, reflecting the national oil corporation's continuing success as a global investor in international markets.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the company, which has two plants in Italy and employed 700 people, has a market share of about 23 per cent in the country.

Najib said the oil giant has managed to enhance Malaysia's international image.

"One of the strategies adopted by PETRONAS is to associate its lubricants with Italy's well-known car, Fiat. The success of PLI has to do with the acceptance of PETRONAS in Italy, he said.

He said this to Malaysian reporters here today after a three-day working visit here since Friday to attend Expo Milano 2015.

Najib, who left for home at noon today, was invited by the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi last year to attend the world's biggest expo, which was held once in five years.

Najib, who is also Finance Minister, said besides multinational corporations and big companies investing abroad, small and medium enterprises also needed to raise the visibility of Malaysia as an investment destination to attract Italian investors.

From his roundtable meeting with 12 Italian and two Swiss captains of industry on Saturday, Najib said, among the proposals highlighted by them was that Malaysia entrepreneurs needed to engage more aggressively with the Italian and Swiss business communities.

"Besides they also need to raise the visibility of Malaysia in Italy as an excellent investment destination," he said.

Najib said they also proposed Malaysia counter more aggressively the anti-palm oil campaigns in Europe. He said the businessmen also shared their positive experiences of doing business in Malaysia and acknowledged the good relationship they had with the Malaysian government.