Italgas Top Management presents 2020 First Half Results.
Conference Call for the presentation of results to the community will be on Monday, July 27th 2020 at 5:00pm CEST.
Click on the following link to watch the presentation live:
Author: adigiuseppe
Italgas: Consolidated results as at 30 June 2020 approved
Milan, 27 July 2020 – Italgas’ Board of Directors, chaired by Alberto Dell’Acqua, met today and approved the consolidated results for the first half of 2020.
Key figures
Consolidated economic and financial highlights:
- Total revenues: 646.8 million euros (+6.1%)
- Gross operating margin (EBITDA): 462.7 million euros (+6.6%)
- Net profit: 153.4 million euros (-7.7%)
- Technical investments: 369.5 million euros (+16.3%)
- Cash flow from operating activities: 388.8 million euros
- Net financial debt: 4,625.8 million euros
Operating highlights including affiliates:
- Municipalities in gas distribution concessions: 1,886
- Number of active meters: 7.7 million
- Gas distribution network: around 73,000 Km
The performance achieved by Italgas in the first half of 2020 demonstrates the company’s ability to continue generating solid economic-financial results thanks to digital efficiency and to the innovation projects deployed over the recent years, which made possible to mitigate the impacts of Resolution 570/2019/R/gas, relating to the tariff regulation of gas distribution and metering services for the period 2020-2025, to cushion the negative effects of the pandemic and to ensure the safety and continuity of the service during the lockdown period.
The 369.5 million euros invested over the period (up 16.3% compared to the first half of 2019) were devoted to the development and modernisation of the networks and digital transformation.
In the first half of 2020, around 486 km of new pipelines were laid, compared to around 379 km in the corresponding period of 2019. Construction of the distribution networks continued in Sardinia, with the laying of around 216 km of new networks, for a total of more than 680 km overt a total of about 1.100 km to build.
Despite the difficulties arising from the health emergency, the traditional meter replacement plan continued, with the installation of 0.6 million smart meters, also taking affiliates into account, bringing the total number of smart meters installed as at the end of the first half of 2020 to approximately 7.1 million. The plan, which is expected to be concluded in 2020, is part of the wider project for the digital transformation of the entire network operated. To date, this project has already upgraded the technology of over 400 distribution networks.
The financing requirements related to net investments for the first half of 2020 were fully covered by the positive cash flow from operating activities, equal to 388.8 million euros.
The net financial position as at 30 June 2020 was 4,625.8 million euros (4,410.6 million euros at 31 December 2019), net of financial liabilities pursuant to IFRS 16 of 75.5 million euros (74.7 million euros at 31 December 2019).
The EBITDA of the first half of 2020 amounted to 462.7 million euros (up 6.6% compared to 30 June 2019) and net profit was 153.4 million euros.
Paolo Gallo, CEO of Italgas, commented:
The performance in the first half of 2020 shows the capability of Italgas to react to exeptional situations – like the one we are currently experiencing due to Covid-19 – by continuing to produce solid results. Despite the adverse effects of the new tariff regulation in force from 1 January, we achieved an EBITDA of 462.7 million euros, up almost 7% compared to last year, and a Group net profit of 153.4 million, which was slightly down compared to the same period of 2019, due to to the heavy economic effects of the new regulation mitigated by all the actions implemented by the Company.
Our investments grew, amounting to around 370 million euros, most of which focused on digital transformation and continuous development and modernisation of the networks. Thanks to the digital transformation carried out over the last three years and to the great efforts of our people, we ensured safety and continuity of services throughout lockdown and we were able to get our worksites up and running again in early May. This restart was made possible by the proprietary technologies, developed and created in-house in our Digital Factory, such as “WorkOn Site”, an application that has made the process of verifying the compliance of worksites and works extremely efficient thanks to artificial intelligence and remote operation.
After completing 65% of the 1,100 kilometres of networks of the methanisation plan in Sardinia, we are getting ready to make some of these networks operational, with immediate benefits for the economy and local population; overtime sustainable benefits, which however required a clear regulation of the entire gas supply chain and the implementation of the tariff equalization in line with the rest of Italy.
Regarding ATEM tenders, we hope for an important acceleration, to release new investments in our sector for over than 3 billion euro per year, essential for the restart of our Country. In the meantime, we are reaping the fruits of our work with the the further award of the Belluno Atem to Italgas and we we are getting ready to start in the coming months all the investments planned – on this Atem and the other Atems assigned to us.
Technological innovation, digitisation, efficiency, investments and a close relation with the community will characterize even more Italgas in the next months.
The Heritage Lab is born: the place where past and innovation meet
The Historical Archive of Italgas, the result of about two centuries of history, will be entirely digitalized and will enhance the cultural heritage of the company
Reconciling history with innovation, Digital Transformation with the preservation of a great historical heritage: that of Italgas and the country. These are the objectives of the Heritage Lab, a new project, carried out together with the Giorgio Cini Foundation and ARCHiVe, which aims to digitize and renew the vast Italgas Archive and to give life to a new model of the Laboratory Museum. A physical and virtual meeting place that tells, in a totally innovative way, the historical riches of one of the most important companies in our country.
THE MISSION OF ITALGAS AND THE NEW HERITAGE LAB
The heart and soul of the new Laboratory Museum will be the numerous original documents, the result of almost two centuries of history, which will represent a true unicum in the gas distribution sector. An immense wealth of information, which will tell a part of the social, economic and technological evolution of our country. The Heritage Lab, moreover, will represent a new Italian model for the fruition of historical contents, whose aim will not only be to preserve, arrange and observe the Italgas Archive, but to share and deepen, from a completely new point of view, its richness with the whole community and the whole territory.
To date, Italgas’ Archive, historical library, newspaper and periodical library and museum collections contain almost 200 years of history and include an original nucleus of:
- over 1,000 linear meters of documents
- 6,000 volumes, brochures and magazines
- 35,000 prints, photographs and posters
- 350 vintage equipment and instruments, declared by the Italian State to be of considerable historical interest and subject to notification and preservation requirements
Numbers, still growing today, which testify to the greatness of the historical and cultural treasure of the company and which highlight the importance of not dispersing the precious legacy left to us by the people who have made Italgas history. In this sense, the metadatation and the entire conversion of documents into big data , made possible thanks to the work of archivists and the use of innovative software, will represent an important bridge between the analogical contents of the past and the current modes of digital fruition.
It is important to underline that the transformation of the historical heritage will not only coincide with the conversion of documents into images, but will pursue the firm will to make the fruition of these contents a real physical and virtual experience. An interactive path that puts the observer at the centre and tells our story with macro-themes of general interest. Historical and cultural strands that do not only involve specialists, but an increasingly broad and interested public (such as universities, cultural associations, local communities, businesses, museum networks and business archives).
This is the direction in which the partnerships with the Giorgio Cini Foundation and the École Polytechnique Fédéral de Lausanne are heading. Two agreements that will allow Italgas to expand its archival and historiographical skills and that will give the company more opportunities for collaboration to further expand its proposal. Already today, in fact, Italgas’ archival fonds represent very important sources for students in the writing of university theses. The aim is to make the Laboratory Museum a common good for the community and the territory, where documents, information and materials will be year after year, more and more usable and easier to consult.
WHEN THE VISITOR BECOMES AN ACTIVE PART
Within the new Heritage Lab will play a fundamental role the laboratories present, which will be equipped with the most advanced technologies necessary to digitize documents in 2D and 3D. The transformation of the content will, in fact, become an integral part of the visitor’s experience, who will have the opportunity to observe in real time the process of digitization of historical materials and will no longer be limited to a passive visualization of the final product.
There will be 4 laboratories in the Heritage Lab:
- the first will be for the time deposit of documents
- in the second one, the necessary digitization preparation treatments will take place
- the third will be equipped with the “Replica” scanner: a rapid scanning system capable of scanning a double-sided document in a few seconds
- the last laboratory will instead contain all the other latest generation scanners including the “V Scanner”, the “3D Lucida”, the “LIDAR technology” and the “Time Machine Box”.
The Italgas Museum will not only be a container of the company’s history, where visitors will be able to follow exclusively exhibition itineraries, but it will become a real productive and always active laboratory. A meeting place that will see its hinge in the Data Square: a real “square” located inside the Museum, where the public will have the opportunity to enjoy the contents of digitizations and to interact with them in an innovative and virtual way. Data Square itself, in fact, feeds on the contents of the Italgas Archive and challenges itself to combine and share with the public daily activities, technologies and documents of the past.
The thread of the Museum will not be a simple linear and unitary succession of historical contents, but they will be conveyed to the observer through the creation of core values: homogeneous materials and narrative strands that will tell and analyze a series of specific themes related to the history of our country. The visitor can range from the evolution of social and cultural changes to those of the major Italian cities (through the consultation of maps and cartographies of the past), from scientific, technological and archaeological discoveries to themes of historical interest such as the two world wars and the progressive entry of women into the world of work.
A MUSEUM ORIENTED TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY
Among the many objectives of the Heritage Lab is to make the Italgas Historical Archive and the Museum as places oriented towards sustainability. But how to reconcile the concepts of sustainability with the project of digitizing the archive? The process of digital transformation of documents of the past can be defined, in fact, as a path of dematerialization that involves a series of benefits, first of all that of the preservation of a cultural and historical heritage and the consequent creation of value for the whole territory and the community. Moreover, thanks to the digital enhancement of the contents, Italgas aims to represent for the country a model of process sustainability, where the final products of the museum become necessary materials to improve the daily work of the company.
A path that in the future may prove to be a viable and sustainable way also for the enhancement of the historical heritage of other realities, combining a high technological knowledge with the ability to involve research institutions and the training and retraining of personnel.
History, innovation and digitization. For Italgas and for the territory. For this reason the new Heritage Lab will represent a real digital asset for Italgas.
Cini Foundation for Heritage Lab
The Historical Archive of Italgas becomes Heritage Lab thanks to the partnership with the Giorgio Cini Foundation
The Italgas laboratory of knowledge, experimentation and above all innovation applied to historical and cultural heritage is born. Two centuries of history look to the future thanks to digitization.
Turin, July 9, 2020 – Italgas and the Giorgio Cini Foundation announce a partnership aimed at transforming Italgas’ Historical Archives and cultural heritage into a “Heritage Lab”, a laboratory equipped with the most advanced technologies for the 2D and 3D digitization of the historical, industrial, artistic and cultural heritage that the Company has collected and preserved during its almost two centuries of history. An experience that dates back to the first half of the nineteenth century, is intertwined on several occasions with the history of the country and whose deepening will allow an increasingly wide audience to observe from unprecedented angles many of the events that have marked the social, economic and technological evolution of the nation.
The agreement was approved today by the CEO of Italgas, Paolo Gallo, and the President of the Giorgio Cini Foundation, Giovanni Bazoli.
The Giorgio Cini Foundation is a cultural institution that stands out for being, at the same time, a centre of studies, a place of meeting and debate but also a space in which multidisciplinary research projects are developed, aimed at providing new tools for analysis and understanding of the reality around us.
In this sense “Heritage Lab” wants to be a model, unique in Italy, of a digitization archive-laboratory whose aim is not only the recovery and systematization of the historical archive of a large company but also its conversion into a big date of the past and, in this form, its sharing with the community interested in deepening its contents.
The Italgas Archives will thus be able to expand the opportunities for collaboration on a national and international level by developing new archival and historiographical activities and skills, as well as access to important circuits such as the ARCHiVe project (“Analysis and Archiving of Cultural Heritage in Venice”) created in 2018 by the Giorgio Cini Foundation, in collaboration with Factum Foundation and Digital Humanities Laboratory of the École Polytechnique Fédéral de Lausanne, thanks to the support of the Helen Hamlyn Trust, or even the large Time Machine consortium, which includes over 14.000 institutions representing more than 100,000 professionals committed to investigating the past with the aim of mapping Europe’s social, cultural and geographical evolution.
A radical paradigm shift aimed at making the most, thanks to technology, of Italgas’ entire cultural heritage: from the historical library to the newspaper and periodicals library, from museum collections to documentation on the archaeological heritage found during the laying of the gas infrastructure.
Today the Italgas Historical Archive consists of an original nucleus of more than 1,000 linear metres of documents, 6,000 volumes, pamphlets and magazines, 35,000 prints, photographs and posters, 350 period equipment and instruments declared of considerable historical interest by the Italian State and subject to notification and preservation. An ever-growing heritage whose study makes it possible to reconstruct not only the history of the Company and the people who worked there, but above all the links with the country’s main events and the world of energy, the role played in Italy’s industrialisation process, urban development and public services.
“The digital world and the materials stored in museums and historical archives – commented Italgas CEO Paolo Gallo – may seem to be at odds with each other: on the one hand, modernity and dematerialization, on the other hand, material evidence of a past that reaches the present day. The challenge of digital transformation is to identify a path that allows these two worlds to meet and enhance a history that is not only of Italgas but of the entire country. Thanks to the partnership with Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Heritage Lab becomes another important part of our deep digital transformation and with it Italgas confirms itself as a company where innovation is not only applied but also created“.
“We are proud of this prestigious collaboration ” – said the president of the Cini Foundation Giovanni Bazoli. “Two years ago, when we launched ARCHiVe, we set ourselves the goal of transforming it into a national and international reference centre for the conservation and enhancement of Cultural Heritage. The announcement of the Heritage Lab project by Italgas confirms the validity of our decision to promote the creation of ARCHiVe, in the belief that the development of theories and practices for digital enhancement can be a new mission of the Cini Foundation, as a leading institution in the conservation, promotion and dissemination of the values of Italian civilization in the world“.
Italgas: 500 million euro bond issuance successfully completed
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED OR DISTRIBUTED IN THE UNITED STATES, AUSTRALIA, CANADA AND JAPAN
Italgas: 500 million euro bond issuance successfully completed
Milan, 17 June 2020 – Today Italgas S.p.A. (rating BBB+ by Fitch, Baa2 by Moody’s) successfully priced a new fixed rate note, with June 2025 maturity for an amount of 500 million euros with an annual coupon of 0.250% under its EMTN Programme (Euro Medium Term Notes).
Today’s issuance provides a pre-funding for the financial needs linked to the Group growth strategy, confirms the solidity of its business model and the capacity to attract funds at competitive conditions.
The transaction has gathered a demand of almost 2 billion euros from a high quality and geographically diversified investor base.
Joint Bookrunners of the placement, restricted to institutional investors only, were Banca IMI,Barclays, BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Mediobanca, SocGen and UniCredit.
The bond will be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.
Details are as follows:
Amount: 500 million euro
Maturity: 24 June 2025
Annual coupon: 0.250%
Issue price: 99.205%
DISCLAIMER
This announcement (and the information contained therein) does not constitute or form part of any offer to sell nor a solicitation of any offer to buy any securities nor shall there be any offer of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer or sale would be unlawful. It may be unlawful to distribute this announcement in certain jurisdictions. This announcement does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in the United States, in Australia, Canada and Japan and in any jurisdiction in which such offer or sale would be unlawful and is not for publication or distribution in any such jurisdictions. The securities referred to in this announcement have not been and will not be registered under the US Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This announcement is not a public offer of financial securities in Italy as per Article 2, letter d), of Regulation (EU) 2017/1129. The documentation relating to the offer has not been/will not be submitted to the approval of CONSOB.
Conference Call: 2020 Performance update
Italgas Top Management presents an update on 2020 performance and on the impact of the Covid-19 emergency on business.
Conference Call for the presentation to the community will be on Thursday June 11, 2020 – 3:00 PM CEST
Click on the following link to watch the presentation live.
https://www.italgas.it/en/press-release/Italgas-The-BoD-examines-the-operating-performance/
Italgas The BoD examines the operating performance
Italgas: the Board of Directors examines the expected performance of operations in 2020 and the expected impact on business of the Covid-19 emergency
Milan, 11 June 2020 – The Italgas Board of Directors met yesterday under the chairmanship of Alberto Dell’Acqua to examine the expected operating performance in 2020 and the impact on business of the Covid-19 emergency.
Guidance 2020
- Revenues: more than €1.3 billion
- EBITDA: € 960-980 million
- EBIT: € 530-550 million
- Capex: more than € 700 million
- Net Debt: approximately € 4.5 billion[1]
- Leverage: approximately 60%
The performance achieved in recent months and the speed at which almost all the network construction sites have resumed their activities demonstrate the Company’s ability to react using all the new technologies developed by the Digital Factory.
The effects of the ongoing digital transformation are now very clear: more efficient remote management of the network and increased control on the territory served with the use of innovative technologies such as “gas leakege detection”, “shareview”, “work on site”. All this has made possible to guarantee the continuity and security of essential services in all the municipalities served.
Thanks to the use of the cloud and the availability of digital tools for all staff, the Company reduced staff mobility and adopted the smart way of working all over the territory ensuring people’s health and safety.
In this first part of the year the Company also achieved a series of important objectives; Italgas
– was awarded the tender for the Atem of Belluno, which is equivalent to an immediate growth of about 40,000 pdr served and another 38,000 in the future;
– was included in the shortlist of candidates in the international tender for the purchase of DEPA Infrastructure S.A., the Greek company that controls the country’s natural gas distribution activities;
– acquired from AEG Coop 15% of the company Reti Distribuzione, which operates in 49 municipalities in Piedmont, mainly in Ivrea and the surrounding areas;
– had its credit rating confirmed by Fitch, despite the that Italy’s sovereign credit rating has been downgraded.
Conference call – A conference call will be held at 3:00 p.m. CET today to update the financial community on the performance of operations in 2020 and the expected impact on operations of the Covid-19 emergency. The presentation can be followed by audio webcasting on the Company website (www.italgas.it). In conjunction with the launch of the conference call, the presentation support material will also be made available in the Investor Relations/Presentations section of the website.
[1] The net financial debt expected for 2020 does not consider financial debt for leasing pursuant to ex IFRS 16. Their estimate is substantially in line with the values expressed at 31 December 2019.
Italgas is awarded the concession of gas distribution service in the “Belluno” district
Plans for extending the networks to serve additional 17 new municipalities, on top of the 34 currently served with methane, increasing the number of users served from 47 thousand to about 85 thousand.
Milan, 3 June 2020 – The Belluno contracting authority has officially awarded Italgas the tender for the 12-year concession of the natural gas distribution service in the “Belluno” area. The concession awarded allows Italgas to increase the number of users served by approximately 40,000 units.
In the area there are currently 34 methanized municipalities, served by approximately 990 kilometres of networks, for a total of 47,000 end users and a RAB of over 43 million euro.
In its offer Italgas planned investments of approximately 135 million euro aimed at extending the networks – for over 300 km – to areas not reached by the service yet, at completely digitizing the existing infrastructures, at improving the quality and safety of the service and at executing energy efficiency interventions on over 60 public buildings. With the extension of the network, 17 new municipalities will be methanized, giving more than 38,000 end-users the possibility to connect to the natural gas distribution network.
Such investments will generate a strong boost for the local economy, with effects in terms of employment, and the extension of the service to new territories will also guarantee significant savings in bills and a substantial reduction in polluting emissions.
“The awarding of the Atem Belluno to Italgas – commented the Company’s CEO, Paolo Gallo – is a further confirmation of how the tenders bring significant advantages to the territory. 135 million euros earmarked for investments in new networks, their digitization, energy efficiency, improving the service where it already exists, and bringing it to new municipalities, are a demonstration of how Italgas can contribute to the development of a territory at a particularly difficult time for the country”.
Changes to Italgas’ calendar of corporate events
Changes to Italgas’ calendar of corporate events
Postponed Strategic Plan 2020-2026 and third quarter results presentations
Milan, May 28, 2020 – Italgas informs that considering the epidemiological emergency caused by the Covid-19, the presentation of the Strategic Plan 2020-2026 to the financial community was postponed to October 30, 2020. On the same date the 2020 third quarter results will be presented.
The 2020-2026 Strategic Plan will be submitted to the Board of Directors for approval at the meeting held on October 29, 2020, already scheduled to approve the third quarter results.
On June 11, 2020 at 3 p.m. a conference call will be held to update the financial community on the 2020 performance and on the expected impact of Covid-19 emergency.
The calendar of corporate events is available at the address https://www.italgas.it/en/investors/financial-calendar/
Italgas acquires a 15% share of Reti Distribuzione
Italgas acquires a 15% share of Reti Distribuzione from AEG Coop and strengthens its presence in Piedmont.
Milan, 26 May 2020 – Italgas strengthens its presence in Piedmont thanks to the agreement signed today with AEG Coop (Azienda Energia e Gas Società Cooperativa), active in the sale and distribution of natural gas based in Ivrea, for the acquisition of 15% of the subsidiary Reti Distribuzione.
Reti Distribuzione, whose share capital is entirely owned by AEG Coop, operates at the service of 49 municipalities for 32,000 redelivery points distributed mainly in Ivrea and the surrounding areas.
The amount agreed for 15% of the share capital of Reti Distribuzione is equal to 4.56 million euro.