News

toputility110 Achieving excellence in any field or industry is no easy feat, doing so year after year even less so. Yet this is exactly what the Hera Group has succeeded in doing at the sixth edition of Top Utility Analysis, which declared the Bologna-based Group to be Italy's most eco-sustainable public service company out of 100 contenders. The report, drawn up by independent company Althesys, rewarded Hera for its"attention to efficient use of energy and resources, improved corporate social responsibility results and the centrality of sustainability to its strategy". This acknowledgement - a repeat of the recognition obtained in the same area in 2015 - follows the Top Utility Absolute award received in 2013 and the Top Utility Communication award of 2014. A shared goal throughout the company, sustainability is the subject of a specific yearly report that ensures all parties can count on complete up-to-the-minute information on the Group's social and environmental impact. The sustainability report is constantly evolving. Following last year's introduction of an indicator showing what proportion of gross operating margin is generated by activities that respond to UN Global Agenda 2030 goals, next year will see an in-depth overhaul to ensure ever-more effective representation of the direct links between actions taken and the contribution to sustainable development. A clear example of this takes the form of the biomethane plant being built at Sant'Agata Bolognese, expected to come on line in the last quarter of 2018. It has been cited by the Global Compact as a world-class example of how to achieve UN Agenda goal n. 7 ("Clean, accessible energy"). Once fully operational, the use of innovative anaerobic digestion and upgrading technologies will allow the facility to produce 20,000 tons of high-quality natural fertiliser and 8 million cubic metres of biomethane (a 100% renewable fuel) from the separate collection of organic waste every year. This is a major project that aims to convert and modernise an existing facility without taking up any more land. It will save over 6,000 tons of oil a year and provide tangible proof that sustainability is, indeed, the way forward. A way forward that starts with families, by collecting and using their kitchen scraps (i.e. the separated organic waste) and ends with real local benefits in the form of a gas that can, for example, power private vehicles or public transport, with immediate improvements in air quality. While that's just one of many examples of how Hera efficiently blends innovation with sustainable development (a wider set of activities was assessed by the survey), it does, perhaps, best represent how the Group's commitment to sustainability translates into a variety of sound initiatives which positively impact quality of life. toputility870 press_release.1519659248.pdf 2018-02-26 Read more toput870.1519659328.png The Hera Group comes out on top again at the sixth edition of the Award, which analyses and promotes the performance levels of the country's main public utility companies toputility110

petisland110 For the Hera Group, sustainability continues to be synonymous with art. Through Aliplast, the Group company that puts plastic through a treatment process that allows its reutilisation, Hera has, fact, provided the raw material with which artist Matteo Peretti created the works that make up PET Island, an exhibition being held at Fabbrica Arte Rimini (FAR) from 17 February to 2 April. The technical sponsor of Peretti's exhibition, Aliplast, engages, every day, in the fight against the pollution that has created the vast island of plastic floating in the Pacific Ocean. It is this island that the title of the Roman artist's exhibition half-jokingly refers to. In this sense, the perception of public duty behind Peretti's work, which examines the collective and social aspects of the subject matter, immediately won favour with the Hera Group, itself engaged in environmental education projects involving some 100,000 students from local schools. With this initiative the multiutility aims to restate its own distinctive commitment to the circular economy; for some time now, this has involved significant initiatives aimed at involving the art world in the regeneration of materials that would otherwise be headed for disposal. One such initiative is the SCART project, which, thanks to close collaboration between Waste Recycling (another Group company) and students from the Fine Art Academies of Bologna and Florence, has generated several events; these include a travelling exhibition consisting of works made entirely from waste, some of which were incorporated on Hera's stands during the most recent editions of the Rimini-held Ecomondo fair. petislan870 20180215_press_release.1519198486.pdf 2018-02-21 Read more pet870.1519198485.png This Hera Group company, a leader in the plastic recycling sector, provided the material for the artist's works, on show from 17 February to 2 April at Fabbrica Arte in Rimini petisland110

topemployers110 For the ninth consecutive year, the Hera Group has confirmed its position as a leader in Human Resources management. This acknowledgement comes from the Holland-based Top Employers Institute which has, since 1991, been researching workplace quality standards in the world's leading companies. According to the Dutch institute, the Hera Group proved to be deserving of "Top Employer" certification on account of "the excellent working conditions enjoyed by employees, a training and development policy that reaches every level of the company and advanced HR management strategies", all of which make Hera "committed to continuous improvement of policies and best practices". Today, Top Employers is a highly sought-after international acknowledgement. The certification process, which has, over the years, become ever-stricter, is based on analysis of objective data and in-depth checks. Key analysis parameters include investment in training and development, welfare and on-boarding policies for new hires, careful planning of selection processes and career paths, targeted talent-growing strategies, a positive corporate culture and an exciting, constructive workplace. Only those companies that achieve the required standards can be listed as Top Employers. In Italy, some 90 companies have been certified this year. These include the Hera Group (the first multiutility to take part in the project, from 2010 onwards), one of just 11 companies to attain uninterrupted recognition. More specifically, the company stood out on account of the "Hextra" integrated corporate welfare plan; set up in July 2016 and covering almost all the Group's 9,000 employees, it is also characterized by a quota of resources that can be "customised" by individual workers to suit their needs. Moreover, as of 2018 employees can convert their results bonuses into further welfare benefits: measures for striking a better work-life balance (smart working, leave/absence management policies and support when returning to the company), development policies and programmes aimed at raising every employee's level of health and safety awareness. What's more, the Group is one of the top Italian companies when it comes to investing in employee training and personal/professional development (it provides about 29 training hours per capita per year). Training experiences have been made more engaging and effective thanks to HerAcademy, the Corporate University that ensures close collaboration between companies and key academic institutions; moreover, 2017 saw the introduction of new, more personalised ways of getting the best out of training as part of the HER@futura programme. The company's heavy investment in training and its ties with the local communities where it operates are also evident in the Hera Educational programme. The latter focuses on providing students with work experience that aims to merge corporate skills with skills acquired in the secondary schools of Emilia-Romagna. Over 200 work experience programmes have been completed since 2015 and the project will soon be extended to schools in Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia. The full Hera Group profile, with the reasons and criteria behind the certification, can be consulted at: www.topemployers.it topemployer870 press_release.1519658204.pdf 2018-02-26 Read more topemp870.1519658203.png The multiutility confirms its position as a leader in Human Resources management. The working conditions enjoyed by its employees are recognised as nothing less than excellent, as are training and development policies at every corporate level and continuous improvements to best practices topemployers110

CEO_logo110 The Hera Group – Italy’s second operator in the water sector, with 300 million m3 of water sold and 3.6 million citizens served – now endorses the CEO Water Mandate, the United Nations Global Compact initiative promoted to re-launch the commitment shown by companies to a sustainable management of water resources. Active for years in all areas in which the CEO Water Mandate supports interventions, Hera is the second Italian company to endorse it, after Enel, thus joining over 100 companies distributed across the globe, including Veolia, Suez, Engie and E.On. The CEO Water Mandate, more specifically, indicates an approach to water services that is subdivided into six focus areas, to which the Group fully adheres. They begin with measures concerning a company’s direct use of water and continue with those involving the supply chain, with a further focus area centred around collective action, intended to incentivise collaborations with third parties and thus consolidate good practices. Another focus goes to public policy, to promote sustainable water management in public debate, develop knowledge on the topic and encourage activities related to sector associations. The CEO Water Mandate, furthermore, gives significant value to community engagement, inviting companies to operate in this sense by developing water infrastructures and environmental education initiatives. Specific attention, finally, goes to the issue of transparency, to orient companies towards accurate financial reporting as regards their progress in reaching essential objectives, such as those tied to water. After recently becoming part of the CE100, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation program that brings together the world’s 100 organisations most active in the transition towards a circular economy, and after launching its collaboration with the Global Compact Network Italia, Hera now intends to endorse the CEO Water Mandate. This will confirm the international scope of its operations, which for some time now – as recorded in its sustainability report – have fully respected the path set out by the European Union and the UN’s 2030 Global Agenda. The water sector, moreover, is the area in which Hera has always concentrated the majority of its investments, coming to over 110 million per year – on average – over the last five years. This allows the Group to maintain an over 53,000 km network in good conditions, along with roughly 900 production and purification plants, providing all with safe and affordable drinking water, as guaranteed by over 2,000 analyses per day, and successfully dealing with periods of serious drought, such as the one seen in 2017. One of the strong points of Hera’s integrated water service consists in its orientation towards innovation, turning to avant-garde technological solutions based on automation and remote control of networks and plants in order to guarantee a continuous supply and ensure that leakage in its networks remains among the lowest nationwide. This is the context that saw, for example, the implementation of a technique involving satellite research on water leakage that Hera, the first in Italy to do so, developed in collaboration with the Israeli company Utilis, substantially increasing the amount of water recovered. In a collaboration with the National Health Institute, furthermore, Hera is implementing the Water Safety Plans, European protocols for monitoring all phases of the drinking water production and distribution supply chain. "The challenges involved in water resources must be considered on a global scale", states Stefano Venier, Hera Group CEO. "This is why Hera intends to continue giving shape to its efforts according to the framework set out by the United Nations. In this sense", Venier adds, "the CEOWater Mandate represents a valid tool for activation with which companies all over the world can identify, and come together for the future of the planet. After all", concludes the multi-utility's CEO, "Hera has long been active in all of the focus areas indicated by the mandate, demonstrating its ability to anticipate many of the orientations that the international community has rightly chosen." CEO Water Mandate press_release.1517301518.pdf 2018-01-30 Read more CEO Water Mandate The second Italian company to do so, Hera thus confirms its own orientation towards the objectives set out in the UN's 2030 Agenda, re-launching its commitment to a sustainable water resource management, which in the areas served is worth over 110 million in investments per year https://ceowatermandate.org/ https://www.unglobalcompact.org/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZbpzCTnCqE /group_eng/sustainability/thematic-reports/in-good-waters CEO Water Mandate website UN Global Compact website Video - Curcular economy - Stefano Venier meets Ellen MacArthur Report in good water centrata CEO_logo110

Scart_bo_110 Art works made from waste take their place beneath the Two Towers. From tomorrow until 18 February, the splendid setting of Palazzo Pepoli Campogrande will be hosting "SCART il lato bello e utile del rifiuto", an exhibition organised by Hera Group which brings together works by artists and students from the Fine Arts Academies of Bologna and Florence. For its Bologna visit, the entire exhibition is crowned by a giant 5-metre tall Pinocchio made by Edoardo Malagigi from thousands of old wooden Pinocchio dolls. Angela Nocentini, together with Malagigi, is the coordinator of the installation "Business Wo/men", a group work by the students of the Academies composed of fourteen life-size sculptures of business men and women. Each statue is 100% made from waste materials such as strips of leather, paper, safety belts, frozen pea packages, scraps of fabric, glass, wood and flakes of recycled plastic. The models on which the students created the artworks were made by Nocentini herself, who on Art City White Night on Saturday 3 February will be making the fifteenth model for the installation live. "Waste Anatomy", which is the title of her performance, will begin at 6 pm and involve all those present. On that particularly day, the exhibition can be visited from 10 am to midnight. The exhibition is completed by four wolves by Alberto Salvetti, assembled from tape, paper, wire, bitumen and especially from newspaper pages reporting news about the dispersion of the wolf. [block]div:row-fluid::db:hr_press_comunicazione::box:94[/block] Scart_BO_870 20180129_Con_Scart_in_Bologna.1534756168.pdf 2018-08-20 Read more IMG_20180129_WA0009.1534757655.jpg After Ravenna, Imola, Modena, Udine and Pisa, the travelling exhibition of Hera Group comes to the city tomorrow, to coincide with Arte Fiera. Until 18 February, works made out of waste by young artists can be viewed free of charge at Palazzo Pepoli Campogrande. On Saturday at 6 pm, a performance by Angela Nocentini Scart_bo_110

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Hera Group have finalised a € 110 million financing contract intended to support the 2017-2021 development program of this Italian multi-utility, listed on the Milan stock exchange. Through this loan, the European bank chose in particular to finance 19 projects involved in the waste cycle that are in line with EU directives and foresee interventions in various regions of Italy. 50% of the cost of these projects, coming in turn to roughly € 227 million, will thus be covered by financing from the EIB. More specifically, the line of credit will be destined to further improvements in the performance of Hera's waste management services, above all by increasing the amount of sorted waste, as indicated in the regional objectives set out by the areas serves, but also by Herambiente, the Hera Group company that is a nationwide leader in waste treatment, recycling and recovery. The Group aims at increasing the efficiency of its own processes to a greater extent, and improving the sustainability standards of its set of plants, whose emissions are, moreover, already far below the limits set by law. With this financing, which falls within EIB policies, new resources will therefore be made available in the transition towards the model of a circular economy, a transition to which Hera has long contributed, as is shown by its entry as part of the CE100, the program promoted by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation that brings together the 100 most active figures in this field worldwide. An additional positive element, furthermore, lies in the satellite activities and the consequences in employment which, over the period in which the Hera Group's multi-year investment plan is put into effect, are believed to help reinforce growth in the economies of the areas concerned. The operation provides the Hera Group with an important contribution to the consolidation of its own financial structure and follows up on the collaboration set into place over time between the EIB and the Group: four other operations (concerning investments in waste management and networks) have in fact been signed by the EIB and Hera in recent years, amounting to over € 700 million. Hera_870 press_release.1532967070.pdf 2018-07-30 Related contents sede_Gruppo_Hera_4505.1516717240.1532967068.jpg The loan is destined to support investments in the environment area, with the aim of introducing innovative projects to help further increase the percentage of sorted waste and the efficiency of treatment and recovery plants sede_Gruppo110.1516717243.1532967072.jpg

Pianoindustriale110 Operating-financial highlights 2021 EBITDA: € 1,135 million (+218 million over 2016 EBITDA) Overall industrial and financial investments: almost € 2.9 billion (+62% over the investments seen in the past five years) Net debt/EBITDA ratio remains below 3 Profits/share to increase by an annual average of roughly 5% over the duration of the Plan Dividends expected to keep rising, reaching 10.5 cents per share as early as 2020 (+17% over the last dividend paid) Industrial highlights The 5 strategic priorities confirmed: growth, efficiency and excellence, with an increasing focus on innovation and agility Group development based on a balanced mix of internal and external (M&A) growth Reconfirmation of current grants in tenders for gas distribution and urban waste collection, and confirmation of the trends of growth in the waste recycling and treatment sector, in line with the principles of a Circular Economy Strategy reflects the main transitions currently underway in the sector: Circular Economy, Customer Experience, Utility 4.0 Objective of over 3 million energy customers at 2021, with 30,000 new gas and electricity customers acquired as of the current year and a reinforcement of commercial synergies, thanks to the recent acquisition of a further 29.5% of Hera Comm Marche Shared value to reach over € 450 million Preliminary consolidated results for 2017 show roughly 980 million in EBITDA, and a plan geared towards growth This morning, the Hera Group's Board of Directors, which met to discuss the Business plan to 2021, also examined the preliminary consolidated results for 2017, which confirm a year-end EBITDA of roughly € 980 million, up almost 7% over the 917 million seen at 31 December 2016 and exceeding the forecast of the previous business plan. The Group's financial solidity will thus see an improvement in the net debt/EBITDA ratio, at approximately 2.6x. On the firm basis provided by this result and by an increased financial flexibility, the Board of Directors approved the new Plan to 2021, which reflects a strong commitment to further growth in the Group's businesses, within a scenario marked by far-reaching changes. A deeply evolving scenario The scenario promises to be denser than ever in events that will bring about a profound evolution in almost all sectors in which the Group is active. In a framework showing clear and positive signals of economic recovery, Italian operators will be called to participate in the process, already underway thanks to the tenders for gas distribution announced by the Authority, of a significant rationalisation in the number of operators. In the waste collection sector, considering the recent transfer of power to the national Authority for energy, gas and the water service (renamed ARERA), service concession tenders which have already expired or will do so during the next five years are expected to be initiated. Other regulatory changes are also expected for segments involving protected energy service customers, intended to promote a further increase in added value for the services offered and greater competition on the marketplace. To this one must add the ongoing processes of consolidation in the energy sales and waste treatment sectors, which are currently among the most fragmentary in Europe and are, in the environmental services sector, at the root of the country's shortcomings in efficiency and infrastructures. The investment plan and the solidity of the Group's assets Faced with the numerous and diversified opportunities offered by the new scenario, the Plan to 2021 foresees investments amounting to almost € 2.9 billion, up roughly 400 million over the previous strategic plan. On the one hand, they will serve to fuel growth over the upcoming five years, and on the other to spark a transformation of Group businesses towards the new industrial paradigms of Circular Economy and Utility 4.0. Over 70% of the investments expected by the Plan will in fact be dedicated to networks, partially going towards a reconfirmation of the concessions for gas distribution in the areas served, and partially to significant interventions in infrastructure modernisation and development, such as installing electronic meters, completing the Rimini seawater protection plan and upgrading the Servola and Cà Nordio purifiers. Furthermore, investments in innovative projects, such as extending smart grids to aqueducts or introducing new technologies for optimising purification sludge recovery, will allow an increase in network efficiency and a reduction in and energy and material consumption. This investment plan proves to be sustainable from a financial point of view, thanks to a positive and rising cash generation, sufficient to cover the investments themselves and dividend payments. The Group's financial solidity, as foreseen by the Plan, expressed in a 2021 net debt/EBITDA ratio of 2.9, will potentially leave room for additional investments, used to grasp opportunities not currently included in the Plan, without jeopardising the parameters that the Group has long maintained as a reference point. Strategy confirmed for seizing the opportunities offered by the scenario and creating shared value The actions envisaged by the Group will be founded on its fundamental principles, efficiency, excellence, growth, innovation and agility; this set of strategic priorities has led the Group to set in place, ahead of time, the necessary preconditions to adequately deal with the changing scenario that lies ahead. The strategy outlined in the Plan is concretely articulated according to the paradigms of a Circular Economy and the opportunities offered by Utility 4.0, through a growing digitalisation of processes, data collection and analysis and the widespread use of "intelligent" infrastructures. The Group, which has always been attentive to the issue of sustainability, in 2016 furthermore began financial reporting as to Shared Value, i.e. the portion of profits generated by projects that benefit the company and at the same time contribute to reaching the UN's 2030 Agenda (covering at least 10 of the 17 objectives indicated). In 2016 this portion accounted for roughly 30% of Group EBITDA and it is expected to rise to 40% or € 450 million overall (amounting to a 150 million increase) within 2021. Increasing EBITDA objectives, balanced between the various business areas, between regulated and free market activities, and between internal and external growth In view of the investment plan to be launched covering the upcoming five years, EBITDA is expected to reach € 1,135 million in 2021, with an almost 220 million increase over the 917 million recorded at the end of 2016. This growth will prove once again to be balanced between the Group's various business areas, while maintaining its current conservative risk profile thanks to the breakdown of its activity portfolio and the wider range of opportunities for growth offered by the reference scenario. A contribution to the increase in EBITDA over the duration of the Plan will indeed come from all areas (Networks, Waste and Energy), and will also be balanced between profits coming from regulated and free market activities and between internal and external growth. As regards internal growth, a high degree of attention towards extracting efficiencies has been confirmed, as has the continuation of plans to expand in markets, with an overall contribution at 2021 of € 138 million (up 17% over the 118 million of the previous five-year plan), sustained by progress in innovation in addition to the support coming from development investments. Further impetus towards growth will come from the lever of gas tenders, with an incremental EBITDA expected to reach 29 million through a reconfirmation of concessions in the current reference areas. For tenders involving waste collection the Plan is based on the idea of reconfirming services in the areas now served, while waiting for the future arrangements set out by the national Authority, ARERA. Concerning external development (M&A), the Plan expects a 107 million euro contribution to growth in EBITDA over the five years in question. This contribution is in line with what the Hera Group has achieved in the past, ever since it was established, through both mergers with other multi-utilities and acquisitions of mono-business companies operating in the energy sales and waste treatment sectors. The latter have been included in the Plan only as regards the operation concerning the Aliplast Group, carried out in 2017 (through the subsidiary company Herambiente, Hera now holds 80% of this Group, with the possibility of acquiring the remaining 20% within 2022), while additional opportunities offered by liberalised markets have been left "on top" of the objectives contained in the Plan. Increasing value for shareholders and an improved dividend policy The Plan confirms the Group's care towards creating value for shareholders, with profits per share increasing by an annual average of approximately 5% and an improved dividend policy with respect to both the past and the forecast of the previous Business plan. The dividend will indeed rise to 9.5 cents/share as of the payment pertaining to 2017 (to be made during the current financial year) and settle at 10.0 cents in 2018 and 2019, reaching 10.5 cents for 2020 and 2021 (+17% compared to the last dividend paid). Networks: smart infrastructures and excellence in services at the root of the Utility 4.0 model The majority of the growth over the duration of the Plan is expected to come from the networks area: EBITDA traceable to electricity and gas distribution, the water cycle and remote heating services will go from € 424 million in 2016 to 552 million in 2021, thus contributing to roughly half of the Group's overall EBITDA. A strong impulse will come from the over 2 billion in investments dedicated to the evolution and modernisation of networks, by adopting innovative technologies able to guarantee an excellent customer service (efficiency, safety, information exchange) and improve management competitiveness, with the aim of reconfirming the concessions already gained in the Group's reference areas. Efficiencies remain a strategic priority, and will contribute to growth over the five-year period with 24 million overall, to which one must add 15 million coming from the innovations introduced in networks (from energy efficiency projects applied to the most energy consuming activities, to automation systems in networks). Consolidating the Group's role as a reference point in the waste sector The waste sector EBITDA is expected to grow from the € 231 million seen in 2016 to 282 million in 2021. This growth will be sustained by the current positive trends in demand, and by approximately € 600 million in investments over the duration of the Plan. The latter will be dedicated to fuelling innovation in environmental services and maintaining an appropriate capacity of waste treatment in the reference area, without neglecting trustworthiness and sustainability. One concrete example of the application of the best technologies currently available is the creation in the Bologna area of the first biomethane production plant, which will become functional within 2018 and allow the circle to be "come home": from collecting the organic part of sorted waste and agricultural trimmings to introducing the methane produced into the network, achieving a particularly sustainable cycle and clear benefits for air quality. Particular attention will continue to go to developing sorted waste, expected to grow from 56% in 2016 to 70% in 2021, including improvement from a qualitative point of view as well, in order to gain the most value from the portions collected and increasingly reduce both environmental impact and tariffs for citizens. Efficiencies remain a cornerstone for the expected results, which will also be sustained by the innovations foreseen (the latter will contribute roughly 8 million to overall growth in the waste area). Furthermore, in 2017 the entrance of Aliplast within the Group's scope of operations has allowed Hera, already a leader in the sector, to introduce a new phase and be among the nation's precursors in developing a model of a circular economy. In the future as well, attention will go to solutions able to further increase the circularity of the Group's activities. The avant-garde position it has reached in treatment, reuse, recycling and energy valorisation thus becomes a heritage made available to industrial customers. The latter already see the Hera Group as a point of reference and a trustworthy partner, able to provide them with support in the evolution of their production processes, in line with the principles of a circular economy, by offering them an all-round service in waste management. Energy: over 3 million customers The energy sector will increase its EBITDA from the € 241 million seen in 2016 to 259 million in 2021. The challenging objective set by the Group is to reach over 3 million energy customers by the end of the Plan, making the most of both internally developing its own customer base, in line with its track record, and the opportunities offered by the market. These involve, for example, extinguishing protected categories in electricity, or the upcoming assignment of last resort services, in which the Hera Group has accumulated a solid experience over the years. Beginning with the over 2.3 million customers reached in 2017, the enlarged customer base will be able to rely on 30,000 new energy clients in the current year: 13,000 protected electricity customers in the municipality of Gorizia, recently acquired through the subsidiary EnergiaBaseTrieste, with 17,000 further gas and electricity customers soon added in the Marche and Abruzzo regions, thanks to a binding deal signed in the last few days. The strong point of both operations lies in integrating a local presence, in a physical sense, that is typical of smaller businesses, with the potential for innovation in services and offers, and the competitiveness that come from belonging to a Group that is among the main operators in the Italian energy market. This is the light in which Marche Multiservizi's acquisition of 29.5% of the share capital of Hera Comm Marche must also be seen, as brought to completion last December, in line with the consolidated decision to reinforce both the integration between Group companies and synergies across the areas served. The customer base will be enlarged thanks to the introduction of new offers, increasingly innovative and personalised, that combine energy sales with the supply of services with added value that are closely tied to the commodity itself (for example, tools for increasing energy efficiency in households). Furthermore, the Group will be able to defend its own customer base with increasing attention to customer experience, turning to digitalised processes and adopting efficient data management and analysis systems to guarantee an excellent service and accelerate the "time to market". Lastly, thanks to the knowhow gained in energy efficiency both within the company and when acting for third parties, the Group will be able to interface with public administrations, condominiums or businesses as reference partners for defining and implementing effective solutions for energy saving, an element which is increasingly crucial in local and national energy strategies. Tomaso Tommasi di Vignano, Hera Chairman The reference scenario shows deep changes occurring in all sectors in which the Group is active, and requires us to "change gears" in order to seize the opportunities that we have been preparing to handle for some time now. The challenging objectives contained in the Plan rest on the solid results achieved until present, and that we wish to turn into further growth from all points of view, both in terms of size and regarding improvements in quality, risk profile and sustainability. The targets reached, as is also demonstrated by the 2017 forecast, allow us to look towards an incremental profit projection compared to the previous Plan, and towards growing payments to shareholders, with an additional increase in dividends, following up on the one announced last year. Stefano Venier, Hera CEO Already today, the new frontiers of circularity and shared value are a reality for the Group, which it can use as levers for an increasingly avant-garde industrial development, with the goal of meeting our customers' evolving needs and facing the urgent drive towards sustainability set out in the agendas of all countries. Our Plan envisages an intense investment program, amounting to almost 3 billion euros, confirming the Group's financial solidity and leaving further room for additional opportunities. Pianoindustriale870 2018-01-10 For further informations pi_2021_870x320.1515584703.jpg Based on the forecast for year 2017, EBITDA amount reached roughly 980 million, the Group's path of growth will continue to focus on investments, innovation and agility, in order to seize the emerging opportunities in the utility sector. Internal growth will be favoured by efficiencies and by innovative and sustainable solutions, while the Group's financial soundness will allow external growth to proceed /-/hera-group-approves-business-plan-to-2021-1 Press release Pianoindustriale110

Jarvis_110 The Bolognese start-up Iooota, in which the telecommunications company Acantho holds an interest, is one of the 10 Italian companies that from January 9 to 12 will exhibit at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2018), the world's largest fair of consumer technology products. Selected by ICE-Agenzia with the patronage of the MISE, Iooota will participate in the first Italian, "Made in Italy - The Art of Technology" mission, with which Italy intends to promote its own path towards innovation, to combine technology, style and design. Iooota, in particular, will be present with Jarvis, a small five-sided robot that can "dialogue" with all the devices used in an office or home. Already a winner of a Digital 360 Awards Jarvis transforms homes into intelligent subjects that respond in an integrated, fast and simple way to the needs of those who live in them, under the most modern protocols of the so-called "Internet of Things" (IoT). A real digital butler, in short, who will land in Las Vegas to show the world what he is capable of. It's really tough to find something Jarvis doesn't know how to do or that he can't learn. Energy saving, safety, entertainment, healthcare: there are so many areas in which it can help. Using a simple app on a smartphone, and remotely, Jarvis can control lights, adjust the temperature of individual rooms, run large appliances such as washing machines and also smaller devices such as sound systems, interact with alarm systems, send messages to warn of gas leaks, flooding, fires, break-ins, and it can also be very helpful for those who have elderly relatives living alone or small children. Moreover, by selecting some preset modes - such as "good morning", "good night", "in" and "out" - Jarvis acts simultaneously and in a coordinated manner on several devices: with "good morning", for example, it raises the thermostat temperature, turns on the coffee machine and starts playing music; by selecting "out", instead, it turns off heating and lights and activates the alarm system. If intrusions or suspicious movements occur, it sends security camera pictures to the user's smartphone. Applications don't end there, of course, because Jarvis looks to the future and its technology is designed to interface with devices and services that have yet to reach the market. Jarvis will be available in 2018, with the objective of being a useful tool to simplify the lives of many, helping to save energy, time and money. For all these reasons Acantho has decided to sponsor the project and has become Iooota's industrial partner. The Hera Group - which Acantho belongs to - has always been mindful of the best start-ups that appear in its area, and thus confirms its strategic focus on innovation, especially when it translates into solutions that, as for the robot designed by Iooota, take meaningful steps forward in terms of energy efficiency, consumption control, environmental protection and, more broadly, quality of life. "We are very pleased - says Luca Degli Esposti, Founder and CEO of Iooota - that Jarvis's potential has come to light to the point of offering us the opportunity to participate in the Italian mission to Las Vegas. There is an Italian way for innovation which we deeply believe in and that Jarvis interprets openly and creatively, communicating with those who use it, learning their tastes and habits and thus becoming an additional, active member of the office, of the home, or of the family that hosts it. Cooperation with the other companies - continues Degli Esposti - is also very important to develop the great growth potential of Jarvis: our robot, in fact, can increase the efficiency and sustainability with which resources of primary importance are consumed, such as gas and electricity but it can also raise the value of an increasingly broad set of technological devices, enhancing their functions, bringing them together and giving them, literally, a voice". "Believing in innovation and in dreams - says Roberto Vancini, President of Acantho - means never ceasing to be curious. Ultimately, this is the greatest lesson that comes from a young and fresh business like Iooota, which we are delighted to work with. Fifteen years ago - continues Vancini - we were among the first to invest in the development of a proprietary ultra-wide bandwidth fibre-optic network: we did so to provide increasingly efficient services to our customers but also because we knew that all this would encourage the development of technologies that could not yet even be imagined at the time. Jarvis is one of them. We are extremely pleased with the awards he is receiving internationally, and l can't wait to see how he will be received by the market." Jarvis_870 20180105_Jarvis_the_robot_of_the_Bologna_based_start_up_Iooota_on_stage_in_Las_Vegas.1533304472.pdf 2018-08-03 Related contents jarvis870.1533304471.jpg The young company, in which the telecommunications company Acantho holds an interest, will be at the world's largest exhibition of consumer technology products with its first creation, a small digital butler that helps users - automatically and remotely - manage the devices of their homes and offices. It is an open, smart and expandable solution designed to make life easier while saving energy, time and money Jarvis_110