Connect with us
Anglostratits

Business

Alfa Romeo “MILANO” History in a name

Published

on

Alfa Romeo

In April 2024 in Milan, Alfa Romeo will unveil to the world the first Sport Urban Vehicle in its history, which will also be available in a 100% electric version

Egalement disponible en Français

POISSY, France, January 18, 2024/APO Group/ — 

Its name will be MILANO. Alfa Romeo (www.AlfaRomeo.com) has chosen a name with a strong historical value for the brand’s first Sport Urban Vehicle, faithful to its sporting DNA, which will also be available in a 100% electric version; A clear tribute to its hometown, ambassador of Made in Italy around the world, international capital of design, symbol of innovation and sustainability, and leader in the automotive transition to electric; Since 1910, the Alfa Romeo logo has consisted of the Cross, the historical symbol of the capital of Lombardy, and the Biscione serpent, the coat of arms of the noble Visconti family. For over 60 years (from 1910 through 1972), the city’s name formed an integral part of the logo; Alfa Romeo MILANO will be unveiled to the international press in April 2024, in Milan itself; Alfa Romeo will be taking advantage of this opportunity to take stock of the founding of Stellantis in 2021: solidity and discipline in the implementation of the announced plan, full compliance with the transition process to electric, quality targets achieved and acknowledged globally; Finally, a focus on 2023, now coming to an end with figures showing solid global growth: up 34% compared to 2022 in the year to date to November.

In April 2024 in Milan, Alfa Romeo will unveil to the world the first Sport Urban Vehicle in its history, which will also be available in a 100% electric version. It will be named MILANO, a genuine tribute to the city where it all began on June 24, 1910.

With Alfa Romeo MILANO, the brand rejoins the B-segment, the biggest in Europe, with a new proposal that fully embodies the brand’s DNA of noble Italian sportiness.  The first 100% electric Sport Urban Vehicle that represents the new gateway to the Alfa Romeo world for everyone, Alfisti fans and beyond, who has been awaiting the brand’s return to the segment.

Jean-Philippe Imparato | Alfa Romeo CEO

With the arrival of MILANO in 2024, Alfa Romeo completes a line-up capable of meeting the desires of all our enthusiasts and much more. MILANO is intended as a symbolic ‘welcome back’ to all our Alfisti fans. As owners of the Giulietta and Mito, they have been waiting to confirm their love for Alfa Romeo. It also serves as a ‘welcome’ to anyone looking for a unique sporting experience in this segment and the distinctive beauty of Italian design.

MILANO is the first milestone in the brand’s transition process to electric and, like the Tonale, has the important task of further strengthening Alfa Romeo’s global presence.

The choice of the name “MILANO”, encapsulated in the brand’s history.

Little marks the identity of an automaker more than its identifying logo.

Since 1910, the Alfa Romeo emblem has included two of the symbols that identify Milan: The cross, the historical symbol of the capital of Lombardy, and the Biscione serpent, the coat of arms of the noble Visconti family and one of the city’s most iconic emblems. For over 60 years (1910–1972), the name MILANO featured in the lower part of the logo. Through 1918, it was accompanied by the acronym “A.L.F.A.” (Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili), then from 1919 by “ALFA ROMEO.”

Always a symbol of the avant-garde, Milan now acts as an international manifesto of modernity, innovation, and sustainability. Considered one of the icons of the arts and of Made in Italy around the world, Milan has always played a crucial cultural role in the fields of fashion, design, and music.

Alfa Romeo has chosen Milan, its home, to embark on a new, exciting, and daring chapter in its history: reinterpreting sportiness in the 21st century.

This decision therefore goes beyond the iconic names of past models and those of mountain passes used more recently, to link up once again with its Italian origins. Its bold ambition is to export around the world the values that have always made it a unique brand.

The brand’s balance sheet, almost three years after Stellantis was founded

MILANO is the first milestone in the brand’s transition process to electric and, like the Tonale, has the important task of further strengthening Alfa Romeo’s global presence

The brand’s commercial performance in 2023 serves as natural recognition of the work of a team whose solidity and discipline has enabled them to pursue the strategies of a long-term product plan decided on when Stellantis was founded in 2021. One by one, the most important goals achieved during this period have been:

  • Bringing the brand back to profitability. This objective was achieved in the second half of the same year, 2021.
  • An approved and funded long-term product plan, named by Alfa Romeo as “From 0 to 0”, with the bold objective to go from “0” electrified vehicles in 2021 to a line-up with “0” emissions in 2027, to become the fastest transition to electric in the entire automotive landscape. With one new product every year:

2022 – The Tonale Hybrid and Plug-In Hybrid Q4 made their debut.

2023 – Alfa Romeo returned to the world of ‘custom-built cars,’ presenting the 33 Stradale (BEV – ICE).

2024 – debut of the first 100% electric Alfa Romeo (Alfa Romeo MILANO).

2025 – unveiling of the first vehicle exclusively available in a 100% electric version.

2027 – The Alfa Romeo range will be 100% electric.

  • Uncompromising quality standards guide all the brand’s strategic actions with great rigor, and the results were immediately acknowledged globally. Indeed, in November 2022 Alfa Romeo ranked first among the premium brands in the J.D. Power Sales Satisfaction Index, rising nine positions in the rankings and obtaining 25 points more than in 2021, the sharpest improvement in the premium segment.

One year later, Alfa Romeo took the top step on the podium in the overall rankings of premium brands and third place in the entire industry, according to the J.D. Power U.S. Initial Quality Study (IQS). It rose by 24 places, the largest growth recorded in the IQS research into the industry.

  • Increase in residual value, made possible by a strict stock management policy and line-up strategy.

Evident growth in 2023

All this served as a suitable foundation for the outstanding commercial performance Alfa Romeo is recording ahead of the end of an intense and challenging 2023:

 up 34% compared to 2022 in the year to date to November, a figure that confirms the solid growth in global sales.

Europe has contributed a robust increase of 53%.

Middle East & Africa is confirmed as the region experiencing the fastest growth, with a rise of 95%. Also contributing with growth of 6%, the India Asia Pacific region, where Alfa Romeo is strengthening its presence in Singapore and Hong Kong.

In North America, the Tonale’s debut in September was greeted with great enthusiasm, and likewise in China where the line-up has now been completed by the arrival of the Tonale. Both regions represent areas of strategic importance, where Alfa Romeo is making major investments to create the ideal conditions for growth.

The History of Milan in the Alfa Romeo Logo

Little marks the identity of an automaker more than the brand name on the grille. For A.L.F.A. first, later for Alfa Romeo, the coat of arms was intended to reaffirm the manufacturer’s origins in Milan. Over the years, its variations reflected the events that took place in the history of the company and of Italy. The cross of the Municipality of Milan, the Visconti Biscione serpent, and the Alfa Romeo lettering (A.L.F.A. only through 1918) have always remained the brand’s hallmarks since its foundation.

On June 24, 1910, the new company A.L.F.A. (Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili) was officially registered and the managing director Ugo Stella asked Giuseppe Merosi to draw up a coat of arms to adorn the radiator of its future cars. The history books tell us that the young draughtsman Romano Cattaneo told Merosi that he had been struck by the Visconti Biscione serpent he had seen on the Torre della Filarete in Piazza Castello as he waited for the #14 tram one morning. The Piacenza designer not only took on the suggestion but sketched the coat of arms there and then for his associate. At the same time, he added a red cross on a white background, surrounding the whole thing with a blue roundel bearing the lettering “A.L.F.A.” and “MILANO” in gold, separated by two Savoy knots. The sketch was approved by the nobleman Ugo Stella, and Cattaneo himself was entrusted with the final design for production. The first major change was in 1919: the company passed under the control of Nicola Romeo and the lettering “ALFA ROMEO” appeared on the coat of arms. In 1925, the GP Tipo P2 won the first Grand Prix World Championship, and a laurel wreath was added around the brand’s symbol to celebrate. After World War 2, the coat of arms underwent a complete overhaul: the Savoy knots gave way – with the advent of the Italian Republic – to two wavy lines, whereas the coat of arms was stylized and made of die-cast metal, painted in a single color. From 1950, the enameled brass branding returned in the 1900, replaced in 1960 by an identical version made of plastic. In 1972, when the Alfasud plant opened in Pomigliano d’Arco, the “MILANO” lettering disappeared. At the same time, the Biscione serpent was simplified, with its second coil no longer rolled round itself. In 1982, a further stylization was added: the laurel wreath gave way to a line of gold. On June 24, 2015, a new evolution of the logo was unveiled during the launch of the Giulia at the recently opened Alfa Romeo Museum.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Alfa Romeo.

Energy

SBM Offshore Confirmed as Silver Sponsor for African Energy Week (AEW) 2026 Amid Africa FPSO Expansion Push

Published

on

African Energy Chamber

SBM Offshore will participate as Silver Sponsor at African Energy Week 2026, where they are set to showcase FPSO expansion in Angola, Namibia and Guyana amid strong financials and a deepwater innovation strategy

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, June 9, 2026/APO Group/ –Multinational oil and gas services company SBM Offshore will participate at this year’s African Energy Week (AEW) 2026 Conference and Exhibition as a Silver Sponsor, reinforcing the company’s long-term commitment to Africa’s expanding deepwater oil and gas industry. Their participation comes as SBM Offshore accelerates brownfield optimization projects in Angola while aggressively positioning itself for new frontier developments in Namibia’s Orange Basin.

 

SBM Offshore’s return to AEW, which takes place from October 12–16 in Cape Town, is expected to draw significant industry attention as operators, financiers and EPC contractors evaluate the next wave of floating production infrastructure across the Atlantic Basin. With more than 20 years of experience in Africa and over $31 billion in contract backlog globally, the company remains one of the world’s most influential FPSO suppliers.

The Sponsorship follows several major milestones announced during 2025 and 2026. On May 26, the American Bureau of Shipping approved SBM Offshore’s seawater intake riser technology developed alongside Shell. The system pumps cold seawater from depths of 700m to FPSO topsides, reducing onboard cooling energy demand and improving emissions performance for future African and South American projects.

The company’s financial position strengthened considerably following the $2.32 billion sale of FPSO One Guyana to ExxonMobil in February 2026. The transaction helped drive a 216% year-on-year increase in Q1 2026 directional revenue to $3.5 billion while reducing SBM Offshore’s net debt from $5.7 billion to $3.2 billion by March 21, 2026.

SBM Offshore continues to demonstrate the technical expertise, operational scale and long-term investment approach needed to advance Africa’s next generation of energy projects

In March 2026, ExxonMobil awarded SBM Offshore front-end engineering and design contracts for the Longtail development in Guyana. The proposed FPSO is expected to feature the world’s highest gas-handling capacity ever deployed on a floating production vessel, processing 1.2 billion cubic feet of gas and 250,000 barrels of condensate daily.

Across Africa, SBM Offshore continues expanding its offshore footprint. In Angola, the company signed multi-year extensions in December 2025 with Esso Exploration Angola for FPSO Mondo and FPSO Saxi Batuque in Block 15, extending operations through 2032. Brownfield upgrades and life-extension works commenced in early 2026 to support declining reservoir pressure management and maintain environmental compliance standards.

The company also finalized a share purchase agreement with Equatorial Guinea’s national oil company GEPetrol in December 2025, restructuring regional asset ownership and supporting localized operational transitions. The FPSO Aseng formally exited SBM Offshore’s lease-and-operate fleet during the same period as management responsibilities shifted toward Equatoguinean entities.

Namibia retains a central focus of SBM Offshore’s African growth strategy. The company is actively competing for TotalEnergies’ Venus FPSO contract in the Orange Basin, one of Africa’s largest recent offshore discoveries with estimated resources of roughly 2 billion barrels. SBM Offshore has expanded its Cape Town commercial engineering workforce while positioning its standardized technologies for upcoming South Atlantic developments.

“SBM Offshore’s participation at this year’s event reflects the growing momentum behind Africa’s deepwater industry and the critical role FPSO technology will play in unlocking new production. From Angola’s mature offshore hubs to Namibia’s frontier discoveries, SBM Offshore continues to demonstrate the technical expertise, operational scale and long-term investment approach needed to advance Africa’s next generation of energy projects,” says NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman, African Energy Chamber.

Looking ahead, SBM Offshore aims to combine frontier expansion with lower-emission offshore production systems. Through partnerships with SLB and Cognite, the company is integrating industrial AI platforms to its global fleet while scaling standardized hull construction to accelerate project delivery timelines across Africa and Latin America.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Energy Chamber.

Continue Reading

Business

Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa Joins African Energy Week (AEW) 2026 as South Africa Opens R400B Grid Expansion to Private Investment

Published

on

Kgosientsho Ramokgopa

South Africa has moved from rolling blackouts to a year of stable supply, and Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa now turns to the grid expansion and market reforms needed to keep the lights on and draw private capital

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, June 9, 2026/APO Group/ –Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, Minister of Electricity and Energy of the Republic of South Africa, has been confirmed as a featured speaker at African Energy Week (AEW) 2026, where he is expected to outline the next phase of the country’s power-sector recovery and the investment drive needed to expand the electricity grid.

 

Taking place October 12-16, AEW 2026 represents the largest energy gathering on the African continent, offering a strategic platform for dealmaking and partnerships. Minister Ramokgopa’s participation reflects the country’s ambitions to strengthen investment flows across the power and energy markets, supporting long-term generation resilience and improved transmission networks.

South Africa has moved from one of the worst phases of its electricity crisis to its most stable supply in years. The country recently passed a full year without load-shedding, and the grid is at its strongest in half a decade, with roughly 4,400 MW more generation on hand than a year earlier. The return of Kusile Power Station to its full output of about 4,800 MW helped anchor the turnaround.

South Africa’s recovery shows what disciplined execution can achieve, and opening the grid to private capital is the logical next step

With supply stabilized, Ramokgopa has reframed the current market challenge as being less about generation and more to do with transmission, offtakers and bottlenecks, pointing to more than 130 GW of generation projects that have yet to secure firm offtake agreements. That bottleneck sits at the center of the country’s largest infrastructure push. The Transmission Development Plan calls for 14,000 km of new power lines and 105 substations by 2030, at a cost of roughly R400 billion, to unlock an additional 22.5 GW of capacity.

Because neither Eskom nor the state can fund that build alone, the government has opened transmission to private investment for the first time through the Independent Transmission Projects (ITP) program. In December 2025, Ramokgopa named seven prequalified bidders for the first phase, all of them international-led consortia. The phase covers 1,164 km of high-voltage lines across seven corridors, with a combined value of about $1 billion. A request for proposals is expected in the second half of 2026.

“South Africa’s recovery shows what disciplined execution can achieve, and opening the grid to private capital is the logical next step,” says NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber. “The real opportunity now is in transmission, and the investors who help build that network will open up generation that will change South Africa’s future for the better.”

Private appetite is already evident on the generation side. The latest round of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Program drew 10.2 GW of bids against the 5 GW on offer. In the 2025/26 financial year, eight new independent power projects came online with a combined 800 MW, and another 1,610 MW is under construction.

Minister Ramokgopa is also expected to address the Integrated Resource Plan 2025, the government’s blueprint guiding new generation capacity, and the rollout of a competitive wholesale electricity market intended to open the sector beyond Eskom.

As AEW 2026 prepares to convene policymakers, investors and operators at the Cape Town International Convention Center this October, Minister Ramokgopa’s participation is the host nation’s signal that its power sector is open for investment.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Energy Chamber.

Continue Reading

Energy

Carbon Markets Africa Summit (CMAS) 2026 programme launched as Africa’s carbon markets move from readiness to delivery

Published

on

CMAS

Positioned as a pan-African marketplace, CMAS connects policy, project pipelines, capital and buyers in a structured environment focused on enabling real deal flow

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, June 9, 2026/APO Group/ –Africa is emerging as an exciting destination to develop carbon market projects with improved policy certainty and more and more projects becoming investment-ready. As global carbon markets transition from rule-setting to real transactions, with Article 6 mechanisms moving into implementation and compliance-driven demand such as CORSIA accelerating, attention is shifting towards where credible supply, policy certainty and investment-ready projects can be delivered at scale.

 

Against this backdrop, the Carbon Markets Africa Summit (CMAS) that is organised by VUKA Group has released its official 2026 programme, outlining how Africa’s carbon markets can move beyond frameworks into execution, investment and transactions. The summit will take place from 13–15 October 2026 in Kigali, Rwanda, hosted by the Ministry of Environment of Rwanda, with UNDP and the African Development Bank (AfDB) as host organisations, the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) as host partner, and AUDA-NEPAD as the strategic institutional partner.

Positioned as a pan-African marketplace, CMAS connects policy, project pipelines, capital and buyers in a structured environment focused on enabling real deal flow.

This year’s programme reflects a changing market dynamic, one where integrity, quality and transaction readiness are becoming decisive.

Carbon markets are entering a more selective and operational phase. The question is no longer whether Africa has a role to play, but whether the continent can bring forward credible projects, enabling frameworks and market infrastructure to transact at scale,” said Emmanuelle Nicholls, Project Lead. “CMAS 2026 is designed as a response to that moment – connecting the actors, pipelines and capital needed to move from ambition to execution.”

Africa’s carbon markets must be built on integrity, equity, and continental coordination so that carbon finance delivers real value

Within this evolving context, the summit places strong emphasis on the foundations required to scale markets responsibly. As Estherine Fotabong, Director at AUDA-NEPAD, notes, “Africa’s carbon markets must be built on integrity, equity, and continental coordination so that carbon finance delivers real value for communities, ecosystems, and sustainable development across the continent.”

A programme built for execution

The CMAS 2026 programme spans the full carbon market value chain from policy and Article 6 implementation to project development, finance and transactions. Key highlights include the keynote opening session on delivering projects, capital and transactions at scale, a high-level dialogue on trust and market readiness, ministerial and technical roundtables, and sessions focused on buyer demand, investor priorities and deal structuring.

 

A central feature is a curated pipeline of African carbon projects across nature-based solutions, regenerative agriculture, carbon removals, waste-to-value and blue carbon, presented through project showcases, case studies and investment-ready deal rooms.

The programme also includes solution labs and technical workshops addressing critical bottlenecks—including Article 6 and CORSIA implementation, early-stage finance, MRV systems and project bankability, alongside live demonstrations of digital carbon infrastructure, ensuring focus on practical market development and delivery.

CMAS 2026 is hosted in Rwanda, a country advancing carbon market frameworks under Article 6, and takes place at a pivotal moment as global markets increasingly prioritise integrity, quality and real delivery at scale.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of VUKA Group.

Continue Reading

Trending