Economic flow to shareholders and financiers

Shareholders received € 150 million in dividends as management profit for the year (they received €133.9 million in 2017), which correspond to € 0.71 per share (+13% compared to 2017), with a payout of 56% on net income, after allocations to third parties.

In the last trading session of 2018, Acea stocks recorded a closing price of € 12.01 (capitalisation: € 2,558 million), down 22% from the previous year, substantially in line with the performance of the FTSE Italia Mid Cap (-20%). During the year a maximum value of €16.43 was achieved on 23 January, while a minimum value of €11.18 was achieved on 26 October. Average daily volumes were marginally higher than 116,000 (compared with approximately 140,000 in 2017).

Table no. 42 - Performance of stock exchange indexes and Acea shares (2018)

€ 100.7 million are destined to financing stakeholders (compared to € 89.3 million in 2017). The change is due to contrasting changes: on the one hand, the increase in interest on bonds and default interest and interest on deferred payments, on the other hand the reduction in interest on medium/long-term debt due to the repayment of two EIB loans. The average overall all-in cost of the Acea Group’s debt on 31.12.2018 was 2.21%.

Regarding the composition of debt, on 31.12.2018 approximately 72.5% of the total amount was derived from transactions on the capital market (corporate bonds). Regarding the banking sector, Acea mainly targets those entities whose mission is to finance strategic infrastructures, such as the European Investment Bank (EIB, 12.4% of the debt) and the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP, 7.3% of the debt). These institutions ensure loans, to entities with creditworthiness such as Acea, with a maturity of more than 10 years, in line with the duration of the concessions (water and electricity) owned by companies of the Group, called to make the relevant investments.