Atlantia let it be known that, to date, to conclude the sale of Highways for Italy (Aspi) to the consortium formed by Cdp Equity along with the funds Blackstone e Macquarie have yet to be accomplished two conditions. First of all, the settlement agreement between Aspi and the Ministry of Infrastructure must become effective "for the definition of the Contestation Procedure launched in August 2018 as well as the Addendum to the Single Agreement and the Economic and Financial Plan". Secondly, there is still no authorization from the EIB "for the change of control over existing loans with the same for approximately 1,2 billion euro".
Aspi, Atlantia: the first condition for the sale to CDP and funds
As regards the first point, the settlement agreement has yet to be registered by the Court of Auditors. Furthermore, Atlantia specifies that on 22 December the Interministerial Committee for Economic Planning and Sustainable Development (Cipess) approved the updated drafts of the Addendum and the Economic and Financial Plan (Pef), adding only a few requirements that Aspi and the consortium Cdp-funds considered acceptable. Now, the problem is that also in this case some technical steps are missing: the Cipess resolution must be registered by the Court of Auditors, after which the Addendum and the Pef will have to be approved with an interministerial Infrastructure-Treasury decree, which in turn it will then be registered by the Court of Auditors.
Aspi, Atlantia: the second condition
On the EIB front, the situation seems simpler: Atlantia reports "that Autostrade per l'Italia has received from the European Investment Bank the communication of consent to the change of control in favor of the consortium and the consequent release of the guarantees given by Atlantia. The formalization of the changes to the loan agreements will take place in the coming weeks".
Deadlines
Atlantia underlines that the last day to conclude the sale of Aspi is 31 March: however, if for that date the conditions precedent of theagreement had not occurred, the deadline could be postponed, at the request of one of the parties, until June 30 of this year.
Atlantia 2021 budget
Meanwhile, Aspi has already been spun off from the accounts of Atlantia, which has therefore closed the 2021 budget with negative consolidated net result of 500 million euros, after write-downs for 800 million. THE revenues instead they stood at 6,4 billion (+22% on 2020) and theEbitda to 4 billion (+31%), while the cash flow operating reached 2,9 billion (+65%) and the investments rose by 14%, to one billion, compared to one financial debt net equal to 30 billion (-3,8 billion on 2020). The statutory profit, on the other hand, stands at 1,2 billion and Atlantia thus returns to distributing a dividend, which will be equal to 0,74 euro per share.
The forecast for 2022…
As for the forecasts for 2022, Atlantia's estimates speak of consolidated revenues equal to approximately 6,6 billion and one ebitda of 4,1 billion, compared with a operating cash flow of 2,4 billion, investments for about 1,5 billion and a dnet financial debt a further reduction to approximately 23 billion, above all thanks to the proceeds from the Aspi sale.
…and those for 2024
For 2024, however, Atlantia expects motorway traffic to grow by an average of 5% per year compared to 2021 and airport traffic to recover strongly with a return to 2019 levels in 2025. On these bases, the group estimates investments for 5,1 billion in the period 2022-2024, supported by revenues ed ebitda growing respectively to 7,7 billion and 5,1 billion by 2024.
