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The operation arose from a market opportunity, shared with Asco Holding Hera acquires 2.5% of Ascopiave's share capital from Amber. The shareholding purchase operation, which arose from a market opportunity, was shared with Asco Holding. It further reinforces the partnership launched with the transaction finalised last December and will be followed by a similar transaction by Ascopiave. sedeHera_870.1580456290.jpg sede_Hera_870 20200131Hera_acquires_2.5_of_Ascopiave_s_share_capital.1580457785.pdf sede_Hera_110 sede_Hera_110 2020-01-31

The tool provides all types of business an opportunity to learn about, manage, and directly improve their sustainability performance Hera is part of the international team which collaborated in the conception and design of SDG Action Manager, the tool launched on 29 January 2020 by the United Nations Global Compact and BLAB with the aim of involving all cultural and business sectors in the building a Common Global Agenda, to improve people's lives and save our planet. SDG Action Manager offers a transversal way, to every type of business, an opportunity to know, manage and directly improve sustainability performance. The tool brings together the characteristics of B Lab's B Impact Assessment, the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact and the Sustainable Development Goals UN agenda, and enables commercial activities to self-evaluate themselves in a dynamic way, arriving at a comparative analysis and a subsequent improvement. The international team also includes 2 other Italian companies, Enel and Chiesi Farmaceutici, also included, like the Hera Group, among 65 stakeholders who stand out for good industry practices: 30 business companies with competence in corporate sustainability and 36 bodies of the civil society, UN organizations and academia. sdg_870.1580463032.jpg SDG_Action_870 Read more https://bcorporation.net/welcome-sdg-action-manager Visit B Corporation website SDG_Action_110 SDG_Action_110 2020-01-31

The Group has been certified for the eleventh consecutive year, rewarding a strategic management that focuses on people and gets them involved in pursuing shared goals. Investments in welfare, training, diversity and innovation continue Never change a winning team. On the contrary: invest in it, to make it bigger and stronger. The Hera Group knows this well, and continues to dedicate resources, attention and commitment to its 9,000 employees. All of this has been certified, for the eleventh consecutive time, by the Holland-based Top Employers Institute, which has been researching quality standards in people practices since 1991. Hera has once again been recognised for its strategy, focused on people, and its best practices in terms of welfare, workplace environment, development and training. Top Employers is one of the most prestigious awards in this area, internationally. The exacting process through which companies are selected and certified is based on data analyses and detailed assessments concerning: investments in training and development, welfare policies and on-boarding for new hires, careful planning of selection processes and career paths, strategies aimed at increasing talent, corporate culture and a constructive workplace. Attention towards human resources is a key part of the Hera Group's strategic management. After all, the rapid changes seen in its external context, with factors including the environment, society, markets and technology, call for businesses to become increasingly agile, geared towards continuous improvement and able to do business while pursuing goals that are in the common interest. The Group's organisational procedures themselves are highly innovative, based on getting all employees involved, so that they can give meaning to their concrete operations, in line with the company's purpose. In so doing, Hera relies on a few of the best practices that have distinguished it for some time. Most importantly, "Hextra", the integrated corporate welfare plan intended for all Group employees (with investments reaching 4.9 million euro in 2019), which is characterised by an amount of monetary resources that can be "customised" by each worker, based on their own needs, as well as the possibility of converting part of their bonus for results into further welfare benefits. In order to improve work quality and agility, offices and workplaces have been made increasingly comfortable, functional and collaborative. As early as 2017, smart working was introduced, which, after a trial phase that produced positive and significant results, now involves over 1,500 employees. The Group's commitment to guaranteeing equal opportunity, along with inclusion and diversity valorisation, remains constantly present, as is proved by its recent inclusion in the 2020 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index and the Refinitiv (priorly Thomson Reuters) "Diversity & Inclusion Index", which in 2019 saw Hera rank third in Italy and fourteenth worldwide, furthermore qualifying as the leading multi-utility overall. These are important results, considering that diversity and inclusion is an increasingly central issue for the international financial community, with investors becoming more interested in listed companies with excellent policies in this area. top_employer_2019_870x320.1580396135.png TE_2020_870 Read more https://www.top-employers.com/en/ Visit Top Employers website /group_eng/working-at-hera-group Visit the "Working in Hera Group" web area Further Informations 20200130_Top_Employers_2020.1580396096.pdf TE_2020_110 TE_2020_110 2020-01-30

The index, presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos, brings together the 325 companies globally most committed to promoting gender equality policies The "Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index" (GEI) has included Hera, together with nine other important Italian companies such as Mediobanca, Snam, Acea, Enea, Intesa Sanpaolo and Unicredit, among the 325 most committed companies, globally, in the promotion of gender equality through the development of dedicated policies and projects and transparency in the dissemination of information. The index, presented as part of the World Economic Forum in Davos, in Switzerland, from 21 to 24 January 2020, assesses the financial performance of companies active in terms of equality, and measures their tangibility through five parameters: female leadership and talent enhancement, gender pay equality, inclusive culture, rigid harassment policy and corporate recognition for women. Hera_870.1579685805.jpg sede_hera_870 Further informations https://www.bloomberg.com/company/press/bloombergs-2020-gender-equality-index-expands-to-include-325-public-companies-globally/ Read the news ede_hera_110 ede_hera_110 2020-01-22

After the SCART exhibition in 2018 and the Gasometro M.A.N. n.3 exhibition by Carlo Valsecchi in 2019, the Hera Group promotes Circular View by Silvia Camporesi, curated by Carlo Sala, from 24 January to 24 February 2020 at Spazio Carbonesi, Bologna. Silvia Camporesi - BIOGRAPHY Silvia Camporesi was born in 1973 in Forlì. With a degree in philosophy, she uses the languages of photography and video to develop stories inspired by ancient myths, literature, religions and real life. In recent years her work has focused on the Italian landscape. Since 2004 she has held solo exhibitions in Italy - Dance dance dance at the MAR in Ravenna in 2007, Planasia at the European Photography Festival in Reggio Emilia in 2014, Genius Loci at the MAC in Lissone in 2017 - and abroad - À perte de vue at the Chambre Blanche in Quebec in 2011; 2112, Saint James Cavalier in Valletta in 2013; Atlas Italiae exhibited at the Abbaye de Neumünster in Luxembourg in 2015, and Art Musings in Mumbai in 2017 and Desfours Palace in Prague in 2018. Group exhibitions she has participated in include: Italian camera, Isola di San Servolo, Venice in 2005; Con gliocchi, con la testa, col cuore at MART in Rovereto in 2012; Italy inside out at Palazzo della Ragione, Milan in 2015; Extraordinary Visions at MAXXI in Rome in 2016 and at the Kolkata Centre in Kolkata in 2019, and The Quest of Happiness at Serlachius Museums in Mantta, Finland. In 2007 she won the Celestial Award for Photography; she was among the finalists of the Talent Prize in 2008 and the Terna Award in 2010; she won the Francesco Fabbri award for photography in 2013, the 2015 Artefiera Rotary Award, and the 2016 BNL Award. She has published five books: La Terza Venezia (Trolley, 2012); Journey to Armenia (Quaderni di Gente di Fotografia, 2014), Atlas Italiae (Peliti Associati, 2015), Il mondo è tutto ciò che accade (Danilo Montanari Editore, 2019) and Doppio sguardo (Contrasto Books, 2019). She complements her artistic work with teaching. Her works are present in public and private collections, among which: MAXXI, Rome; MART, Rovereto; BNL Group, Milan. 870x500_eng.1579256714.jpg Hera Group promotes Circular View by Silvia Camporesi Hera Group promotes Circular View by Silvia Camporesi Hera Group promotes Circular View by Silvia Camporesi 2019-07-23

In light of the positive preliminary results for 2019, showing higher growth than expected in the previous Plan, and the M&A transactions carried out, the Group has presented its new five-year strategic document. This reflects its commitment towards further industrial development, sustained by investments, innovation and an eye to sustainability. Hera has confirmed its role as a "local multi-utility", capable of creating value for the areas in which it operates and for all stakeholders Tomaso Tommasi di Vignano, Hera Executive Chairman The goals set out in the Business plan we are presenting today are in line with our history: for 17 years, we have been growing uninterruptedly, creating value for the areas in which we operate and for all stakeholders, beginning with our shareholders. This value translates into concrete benefits, concerning for example the investments made in services and plants, which become assets of the area itself, and in the activities in which Hera involves citizens, institutions, workers, suppliers and members of the third sector, acting as an “enabler” for their own growth. Our Plan is able to rely on both a solid initial basis – with preliminary year-end results 3% higher than expected – and significant growth in 2020, sustained among other things by the transaction with Ascopiave, which will now begin to contribute to our results. Stefano Venier, Hera CEO Our Business plan’s orientations, just like the initiatives carried out by Hera in previous years, reflect our growing attention towards sustainable development, circular economy and decarbonisation. Within the Group, sustainability is built into our corporate strategies themselves: by 2023, 42% of Ebitda will involve “shared value”, that is, projects that respond to the goals contained in the Un Agenda. In this area, investments will come to over 950 million euro over the period covered by the Plan, of which 330 million to make our cities increasingly smart, thanks to innovation and technological evolution, or again projects promoting energy efficiency, recovery and reuse of materials, air quality and network resilience, in order to face climate change. What’s more, we are looking even farther into the future, with the objective of reducing the impact of our activities up to 2030, in all areas in which we operate. Preliminary results for 2019 show Ebitda at 1,081 million; a new Plan to accompany development Today, the Hera Group's Board of Directors, chaired by Tomaso Tommasi di Vignano, approved the Business plan to 2023. The year-end projections confirm results exceeding expectations, due to both the highly positive results seen in the third quarter report at 30 September 2019, and the performances projected for the last quarter of the year. Ebitda is expected to reach roughly 1,081 million euro, up 4.85% compared to the 1,031.1 million seen in 2018, with the Net debt/Ebitda ratio settling at roughly 2.5, before including the financial impact of the Ascopiave transaction, which brings this indicator to roughly 3.05. The scenario: options for growth, along with a range of opportunities Even within a complex national economic scenario, marked by limited prospects for growth, Hera intends to continue along its path of development and maintain the resilience it has shown over time in this type of context. This will be achieved by relying on its noteworthy available asset portfolio, the skills of its employees, the diversified portfolio mix and the opportunities now emerging in its various business areas. The growing attention shown by European institutions towards promoting sustainable growth, with interventions such as the recent "A European Green Deal" program, will give further value to the goals already pursued by the Group in recent years, in terms of sustainability, innovation and circularity in its business management models. In regulated sectors, growth opportunities are linked to the reassignment of concessions through tenders and ongoing changes in Arera tariff regulation which, as of 2020, will be responsible for the waste management sector as well. In free market waste management activities, the persistent shortcomings in waste treatment plants on a national and European level sustains a positive trend in prices and demand, going to the advantage of operators provided with adequate infrastructures. As regards free market energy sales, over the period of time covered by the Plan, new yearly/two-year tenders for assigning last resort services are expected to be held and a process of liberalising protected electricity customers "maggior tutela" is expected to be gradually introduced. Growth, risk management and circular economy: the three pillars of the new Business plan In such context, Hera has defined its Plan to 2023 by elaborating marketing and industrial growth strategies based on an increasingly sustainable business model, making the most of the opportunities offered by new technologies and digital evolution. The new strategic document aims at leveraging upon the competitive advantages of its multi-utility portfolio: a wide service portfolio marked by a significant amount of regulated services; solidity in assets and finance; an ability to fund significant investments; a corporate environment and experience geared towards efficiency and innovation; and the investments constantly made in training its roughly 9,000 employees. In particular, the Group has set out its Plan to 2023 by following 3 strategic directives: industrial growth, risk management. Attention towards sustainability remains a fundamental aspect of the Group's strategy, reflecting the goals set out in the 2030 Agenda that concern the Group's activities (covering 11 of the UN's 17 SDGs): almost 3/4 of the growth expected over the period covered by the Plan will be sustained by projects that respond to this "call to action". Almost 2.9 billion euro in investments; solidity confirmed in assets and finance The new Business plan foresees investments coming to roughly 2.9 billion euro, of which roughly 2 billion will go towards maintenance of currently owned plants and 900 million in plant expansion. In particular, investments for internal plant development are expected to rise, now coming to 540 million, 120 more (+30%) than in the previous plan. The attention that Hera has shown over time to the solidity of its assets and its financial balance has allowed to include projects for expansion through M&As in its new strategic document, in addition to the ones already finalised over the previous year, including the partnership with Ascopiave. At the same time, space to manoeuvre remains, as does the flexibility required to grasp any additional opportunities for external growth in the upcoming years, not included in the current Plan. Leader in the waste management area, thanks to sorted waste, solutions for waste transportation and outstanding projects for a circular economy Increases are also expected for Ebitda in the waste management area, which will go from 252 million in 2018 to 307 in 2023, with 618 million in investments expected between 2019 and 2023. In this sector, the Group aims at confirming its commercial and technological leadership in the integrated waste cycle, thanks to its avant-garde set of plants which are in line with European best practices, which will be further developed in the years to come with the goal of increasing resource protection and maximising reuse. One example comes from biomethane production plants. The experience acquired from the Sant'Agata Bolognese (BO) plant - which transforms the organic portion of sorted waste into compost and biomethane which fuels buses, taxis and private vehicles - will lead new projects to be introduced in areas served by the Group, supporting the model of a circular economy. In particular, over the period covered by the Plan, the Voltana anaerobic digester, located in the area surrounding Ravenna, will also be partially reconverted to produce biomethane. Within 2023 the Hera Group furthermore expects an additional rise in sorted waste in the areas served, up from the 62.5% seen in 2018 to 75% in 2023. The Group's objective is to improve its quality as well, thanks to numerous campaigns designed to raise awareness and initiatives meant to get citizens involved. The circular model, indeed, in addition to the appropriate type of plants, also requires coherent individual and collective behaviour. A larger and better amount of sorted waste leads to further circular business opportunities. One example can be seen in the partnership between Hera and Eni intended to produce biofuel from waste oil brought by citizens, which is expected to be extended to other areas served by the Group, outside Emilia-Romagna, where the pilot project took place. Business plan to 2023 centrata Further informations /-/hera-group-approves-business-plan-to-2023-1?inheritRedirect=true Press release http://investornews.gruppohera.it/en/?n=179 Newsletter: business plan to 2023 /group_eng/investor-relations/hera-strategy/ Strategy and Business Plan Read more bp_2023_110x150.1578647530.png Business_plan_110 2020-01-09

The transaction between the two companies, finalised today, marks the birth, through EstEnergy, of the largest energy operator in North-Eastern Italy, whose BoD was also appointed. Ascopiave acquires new assets in gas distribution, reinforcing its position in the sector and reaching 775,000 users served. The Hera Group now has roughly 3.3 million energy customers overall The Hera Group and Ascopiave S.p.a. have finalised the transaction that formalises, as of today, the birth of the largest operator in the energy sector in North-Eastern Italy, with over one million customers, while at the same time redefining gas distribution between the two partners. Today's closing, which follows up on the framework agreement signed on 30 July and the subsequent approvals granted by the appropriate authorities and bodies, involves an exchange of assets having an equal value between the Hera Group and Ascopiave, in energy sales on the one hand, and gas distribution on the other. The economic aspects of the transaction did not change with respect to what had been made public previously, except for adjustments in the closing date included in last July's framework agreement, and settlements defined for governance and management options for Ascopiave's shareholdings in EstEnergy and Hera Comm. This transaction is an important step along the evolution of the Hera Group and Ascopiave's business portfolios, and fully respects the orientations in development approved by their respective Boards of Directors. The Hera Group, indeed, will achieve the goal set out in its Business plan to 2022 in advance, reaching roughly 3.3 million customers in energy sales. Ascopiave, instead, will implement its own strategic repositioning plan, through a sales agreement with a leading figure and a consolidation of its own position in the core business of gas distribution. As regards energy sales, EstEnergy will manage commercial activities in the Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Lombardy regions, with over one million customers (including roughly 795,000 gas contracts and roughly 265,000 electricity contracts). More specifically, the new company, whose value before the transaction came to 191.7 million euro, now includes the sales companies of the Ascopiave Group (Ascotrade S.p.a., Ascopiave Energie S.p.a. and Blue Meta S.p.a. as well as the joint ventures Asm Set S.r.l. and Etra Energia S.r.l.) and a shareholding in Sinergie Italiane S.r.l., for an overall value of 474.2 million euro, as well as those of the Hera Group (Hera Comm Nord-Est S.r.l), whose value comes to 159.0 million euro. The Hera Group holds 52% of the share capital of the new EstEnergy, while 48% is held by Ascopiave (which purchased this amount for a price of 395.9 million euro, based on the total equity value of EstEnergy, equivalent to 824.9 million euro). The Board of Directors is made up of 5 members, 3 appointed by Hera and 2 by Ascopiave, in line with the Shareholders Agreement signed today. The members, appointed today, are, for the Hera Group: Stefano Venier, CEO of the Hera Group; Cristian Fabbri, Group Market Manager and CEO of Hera Comm, who will also act as CEO of the new EstEnergy; Isabella Malagoli, Director of Sales and Marketing at Hera Comm. Ascopiave's members are: Giovanni Zoppas, CEO of Thelios, who will also act as Chairman, and Nicola Cecconato, Chairman and CEO of Ascopiave Group. As regards the reorganisation of gas distribution, Ascopiave purchased from the Hera Group, for a price set at 168 million euro, an area of concessions comprising roughly 188,000 users in the Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia regions, which as of 31 December 2019 will come together in the newly created company named AP Reti Gas Nord-Est. Thanks to this transaction, the Ascopiave Group will manage roughly 775,000 users and a network with a total length of over 12,000 Km, thus consolidating its position in the national ranking. Lastly, as indicated in the agreement signed in late July, 3% of the share capital of Hera Comm was purchased by Ascopiave today, for a price of 54 million euro. Furthermore, Chairman and CEO Nicola Cecconato was appointed in the company's Board of Directors. Furthermore, as part of the overall redefinition of energy sales activities, Hera Comm directly acquired 100% of the share capital of Amgas Blu, a company entirely held by Ascopiave, which operates in the province of Foggia and has roughly 50,000 customers, for a price of 42.5 million euro. hera_ascopiave_870.1576776340.jpg GH-ASCOPIAVE_870 Read more 20191219_closing_Gruppo_Hera_e_Ascopiave_eng_final.1576776341.pdf GH-ASCOPIAVE_110 GH-ASCOPIAVE_110 2019-12-19

The multi-utility received the FIRE - Energy Manager 2019 award, one of the most coveted awards in the sector at national level. The prize was awarded based on the activities carried out internally within the company to promote the rational use of energy The Hera Group has been recognized among the Italian companies most capable of promoting the rational use of energy. This was decided by the highest national body in the sector: the FIRE (Italian Federation for the Rational Use of Energy), which for the past three years has established the FIRE - Energy Manager Award. The Hera Group has now participated for the first time and immediately took the podium, thus obtaining an important recognition, on an equal footing with two other Italian companies, active in the civil and tertiary sectors. The award ceremony took place on 11th December 2019 in Milan, during the Enermanagement XII, a conference dedicated to energy management, resource management and the core business, at the end of a round table in which Hera Group experts also participated. The award assigned to the Hera Group is of great value, as it recognizes the attention and commitment that the company has always placed in the efficient use of energy in all its activities, starting with the overall goal of reducing its own energy consumption of 5% by 2020, with a saving of over 8 million euro compared to 2013 energy expenditure. 374AD479_008F_4660_8E5F_7F9B04C4C001.1576150015.jpeg FIRE_prize_870 Further informations /group_eng/sustainability/thematic-reports/value-to-energy Examine the report "Value to energy" Read more 20191212_FIRE_prize_press_release.1576150016.pdf FIRE_prize_110 FIRE_prize_110 2019-12-12