Press releases

Improvement seen in all operating-financial and sustainability indicators, with results exceeding expectations and a renewed commitment to creating shared value. Appointment of Alessandro Melcarne, co-opted last November as member of the Board of Directors, confirmed. Hera Shareholders Meeting Hera Shareholders Meeting Hera's Ordinary Shareholders Meeting called to approve the 2017 financial statements was held in Bologna this morning. Furthermore, the 2017 sustainability report (a consolidated non-financial statement drafted pursuant to legislative decree 254/2016) was presented and the appointment of Alessandro Melcarne, priorly co-opted as member of the Board of Directors during the session held on 8 November 2017, was confirmed. Approval of the financial statements and a dividend rising to 9.5 cent/share In the Ordinary session, the Shareholders Meeting approved the balance sheets pertaining to 2017, which showed improvement in all operating-financial indicators, with results exceeding expectations: turnover reached € 6,136.9 million, up 10.3% over the previous year, Ebitda came to € 984.6 million (+7.4%) and net profits amounted to € 266.8 million (+21.1%). In 2017, overall Group investments, including capital grants, came to € 440.5 million (+14% compared to 2016). Net debt improved, amounting to € 2,523 million and the net debt/EBITDA ratio saw a further decrease compared to the previous year, settling at 2.56, thanks to growth in operating results and the reduction in net debt. These results are particularly positive, and confirm the validity of the Group's multi-business strategy, which allows the company to successfully balance regulated and free-market activities in addition to maintaining a sustainable risk profile. The combination of two fundamental levers, internal growth and external development, moreover allowed the Group to continue expanding, owing to factors including its ability to anticipate and grasp the best opportunities seen within an increasingly challenging regulated and market scenario, whose development models are progressively evolving. These results, in line with the content of the Business Plan to 2021, are the crowning achievement of the multi-utility's 15 years of activity, which have seen it reach significant goals: from a quintupled Ebitda to net profits that have grown by almost 8 times compared to 2002, without counting the 25 acquisitions completed, producing remarkable synergies. The Meeting then approved the Board of Directors' proposal to pay a 9.5 cent/share dividend, showing an increase over the past and in line with what had previously been announced in the Business Plan to 2021. The ex coupon date has been set at 18 June 2018, with payment beginning on 20 June 2018. The dividend paid, based on the price of Hera stock at 31/12/2017, corresponds to an annual return of over 3%. This confirms once again the Group's high degree of attention towards the creation of shared value, as indicated in the recent Business Plan, which calls for a policy of rising dividends compared to the Group's historical trend, with a further increase foreseen reaching 10 cent/share in 2018 and 2019, and coming to 10.5 cents in 2020 and 2021. The results achieved, the business model's resilience and the solid bases of the Business Plan, it is worthwhile noting, all recently allowed the Hera Group to obtain a revision of the company's outlook rating from Standard & Poor's, going from stable to positive. An entirely renewed sustainability report, with shared value Ebitda coming to € 329 million The 2017 sustainability report was also presented during the Meeting: entirely renewed from every angle, regarding both editorial criteria and content, it brings to light an increasingly strong attention towards the creation of shared value. This is accomplished by recording business activities that, in addition to generating operating income for the company, are also in line with the drivers for sustainable growth set out in the UN Agenda. More specifically, the Hera Group's shared value Ebitda amounted to € 329 million, up 10% over the previous year. This result perfectly matches the path marked by the Business Plan, which expects this value to reach 40% by 2021. Furthermore, in 2017 the Group also invested roughly € 200 million (approximately 41% of total investments) in the development of shared value. A rise was also seen in the overall wealth distributed in local areas, benefiting workers, shareholders, financers, banking institutions, public administrations, local communities and suppliers. This wealth came close to 2 billion euro in 2017, showing a 6.5% growth over 2016, with positive consequences for local economies and employment rates. The main interventions involved producing biomethane from the organic portion of waste, developing waste recycling, upgrading the wastewater purification service and digitalising services in a move towards utility 4.0. With sorted waste rising to 57.7% of the total, the Hera Group has continued reducing the use of landfills, which decreased to 7% as compared to the European target of 10% within 2035. An excellent performance was moreover seen in packaging recycling, which reached 68%, already over the European target of 65% by 2025. The strategic companies in recovering materials were Waste Recycling and Aliplast: in 2017 alone, the latter's plants in fact produced roughly 103 thousand tonnes of recycled plastic. The Group continues to show commitment to decarbonisation, with a 16% reduction in the carbon footprint in energy production compared to 2015. In the area of energy efficiency, the interventions implemented allowed the company to decrease its own energy consumption by 3.6% compared to 2013, surpassing the target of 3% and approaching the 5% set for 2020. Furthermore, for all the activities it manages in the Emilia-Romagna region, as of 2017 Hera has been using exclusively renewable energy, a choice made this year by AcegasApsAmga and Marche Multiservizi as well. Moreover, 67.5% of the energy produced by the Group itself comes in turn from renewable sources and cogeneration. Other resolutions approved The Meeting approved the renewal of its authorisation for the Board of Directors to purchase treasury shares (and arrangements for their disposal), for a maximum amount of € 200 million over 18 months, at the same time annulling the unimplemented part of the prior resolution, dating to the previous year.This renewal of authorisation was requested to pursue the aims provided for by current regulations and accepted market practices, including investment opportunities entailing the use of treasury shares to increase the creation of value, any acquisitions of holdings that may involve equity trading, and transactions involving financial instrument issuance. The Meeting furthermore approved the remuneration policy report, in line with international best practices. Lastly, the report on corporate governance was presented to the Meeting. The appointment of Alessandro Melcarne as member of the BoD confirmed The meeting lastly confirmed the appointment of Alessandro Melcarne as member of the Board of Directors of Hera S.p.A. Melcarne had previously been appointed by cooptation during the Board of Directors meeting held on 8 November 2017, substituting the resigning Aldo Luciano, and will remain in office until the date set for the appointment of the next Board of Directors, i.e. until the Meeting called to approve the financial statements for 2019. Director Melcarne confirmed that he meets the independence requisites foreseen by law and does not hold any shares in Hera S.p.A. His CV can be consulted on the website www.gruppohera.it, within the Corporate Governance/BoD section. Read more press_release_hera_shareholders_meeting_2018.1524735826.pdf 2018-04-26 13:15:59 Hera Shareholders Meeting Hera Shareholders Meeting 2017-06-23

The first Italian company to be admitted within this network, Hera confirms the international standing of its activities in the water cycle, reflecting its participation in the Global Compact's CEO Water Mandate and its entry as part of the CE100. The Group's commitment takes concrete shape with over 110 million invested in the sector each year. 2020 Integrated Governance Index: Hera once again ranked at the top of sustainable finance Hera SpA The Hera Group - Italy's second operator in the water cycle, with 300 million m3 of water sold and 3.6 million citizens served - has now become part of the Leading Utilities of the World (LUOW), a network that brings together the planet's most innovative and successful companies in the water and wastewater sector and aims at promoting shared knowledge, projects and new objectives, in addition to favouring collaboration. This new entry came about during the 2018 Global Water Summit, which was brought to a close yesterday in Paris. Hera is Italy's first operator to obtain this recognition, which chronologically follows its membership in the CEO Water Mandate, an initiative launched by the Global Compact of the United Nations and designed to encourage companies to show greater commitment in sustainable water management. In order to become part of the LUOW, the Hera Group passed the four phases involved in selection. The company was requested to provide extensive documentation proving its commitment and innovative contribution to managing water and wastewater activities. Following an additional phase of dialogue with the evaluation committee, which took place in France during the last few days, the Group became the twenty-eighth company to join the network. Hera thus confirms the international status of its activities, which for some time now - as recorded in detail in its sustainability report - have been fully in line with the path set out by the European Union and the UN's 2030 Global Agenda. The water sector, after all, is the area in which Hera has always concentrated the majority of its investments, coming to an average of more than 110 million per year over the last five years. This allows the Group to maintain over 53 thousand km of network in good health, in addition to approximately 900 production, treatment and purification plants. All users are thus provided with safe and inexpensive water, guaranteed by over 2 thousand analyses per day and capable of successfully overcoming periods of serious drought, such as the one seen during 2017. One of the strong points of Hera's integrated water service lies in its orientation towards innovation, with cutting-edge solutions based on automation and remote control of networks and plants, to guarantee continuity in supply and maintain leakage in its networks among the lowest in the country. This context includes, for example, the development of a technique involving satellite research for water leaks that Hera, the first to do so in Italy, developed in collaboration with the Israeli company Utilis, significantly increasing the amount of water recovered. Acting together with the National Health Institute, moreover, Hera is currently implementing the Water Safety Plans, a European protocol for monitoring all phases involved in drinking water production and distribution. Hera_SpA_2380_GWI_870_1524149606.1533218688.jpg Read more press_release_leading_utilities_.1524143605.pdf 2018-04-18 12:14:59 2020 Integrated Governance Index: Hera once again ranked at the top of sustainable finance Hera SpA 2017-06-23

All conditions set forth in the agreement having been fulfilled, the 100% divestment of the company holding concessions for gas distribution and sales in the city of Sassari has been completed. Hera thus continues in its process of rationalizing the Group's holdings. 2020 Integrated Governance Index: Hera once again ranked at the top of sustainable finance Hera SpA Hera and Italgas completed today in Milan the transfer of 100% of Medea S.p.A., the company holding the concession for gas distribution and sales in the city of Sassari. This acquisition follows up on the binding agreement signed by the parties on 21 December 2017 and results from all conditions set forth in the contract having been met. Medea's overall enterprise value was set at € 24.1 million. The entire price was paid on a cash basis, net of debt. This transaction is part of a larger process through which the Hera Group is rationalising its holdings and concentrating on its own reference territories. The baton was handed to Italgas, Italy's main operator in the gas distribution sector, following a fruitful twenty-year collaboration between Hera and the municipals administrations in office over this period of time, which allowed Medea to be transformed into the largest company of its kind in Sardinia. Thanks to investments reaching over 20 million euro in favour of this area, the company now serves approximately 13,000 customers, all of whom reside in the city centre of Sassari and to whom it distributes a volume of over 5 million m3 per year. Hera_Italgas870_1513853697.1533218766.jpg Read more press_release_aprile_2018_medea_italgas.1523006520.pdf 2018-04-06 13:44:59 2020 Integrated Governance Index: Hera once again ranked at the top of sustainable finance Hera SpA 2017-06-23