Acea sinks on the Stock Exchange (-3,8% to 11,83 euro) after the postponement of the 2017-2021 business plan. The presentation of the update on the strategic choices of the Roman utility was scheduled for Monday 13 March but the indecisions of the Raggi council, which has not yet disclosed anything about the intentions regarding the renewal or change of management, led to the postponement.
Acea's Board of Directors thus decided to postpone the business plan by a few months, pending the renewal of management by the Shareholders' Meeting, convened for 27 April for the approval of the 2016 accounts.
Having not received any proposal to extend his mandate from the Municipality of Rome, Acea's controlling shareholder with 51% of the capital, the managing director Alberto Irace, appointed three years ago, declared on Monday that he considers his mandate concluded .
In the light of these statements, market concerns have increased regarding the increase in political risk and management turnover, which could lead to a jump in the volatility of the Acea share. The analysts' positions are various, reported by Market Insight: Banca IMI has put its recommendation and target price under review; downgrade both by Banca Akros, which cut the rating from "Accumulate" to "Reduce" and the target price from 14 to 11,2 euro, and by MainFirst Bank, which lowered the recommendation from "Outperform" to “Neutral” and the target price from 15 to 12 euros; Kepler Cheuvreux confirmed the "Buy" by raising the target price from 13 to 13,5 euros; Mediobanca, on the other hand, after the downgrade last June following the municipal elections in the capital, confirmed the "Neutral" rating and the target price of 16,5 euro.
At 11.46 the Acea shares they are losing 3,6%, placing themselves as the worst stock in the utility sector (-0,5%) and second worst in the FTSE Italia Mid Cap (-0,3%).
