Major von Donat published his idea in Rome and Berlin, and succeeded in gaining the attention of Emil Rathenau, the general manager of AEG in Berlin. Rathenau saw market potential for electric investments, so he and some industrialists in Berlin, as well as private financiers, created the "Pontine Syndicate Ltd" in 1900. Seventy million gold marks were set aside for the project. (With 1 mark being 5g of pure silver, the amount is equivalent to $17.5m in 1900 US$.) One of the conditions was that the Italians would have to match the funds on the project.