“We believe that the dividend growth policy with a rate of 10% for the next few years starting today is sustainable”. Atlantia's CEO, Giovanni Castellucci, said this on Friday during the shareholders' meeting that approved the group's 2017 financial statements, which closed with a net profit of 1,17 billion.
Green light also for the distribution of the balance of the dividend, equal to 0,65 euro per share, after an advance of 0,57 euro per share was paid last November. The voting capital was 76,62%, of which 98,84% voted in favour, 0,2% against, 0,54% abstained and 0,33% did not vote.
“Dividends have been increased by 26% this year”, continued Castellucci, underlining that Italy remains the center of gravity of Atlantia, which “is not a financial company, but an industrial group with expertise in engineering, construction, IT and electronics".
This uniqueness "is our strength - the manager said - and has allowed us, in the case of AdR, to successfully implement these extended skills".
As for the managerial integration with the Spanish Abertis, “it will be a major challenge, we will have to create a single group, with a common language and mutual esteem. We want to create an integrated group with Italians in Spain and Spaniards in Italy. An integrated Italian-Spanish group”.
Traffic on the Autostrade per l'Italia network in the first quarter of 2018 showed an increase of around 1% compared to the same period of 2017, down on the previously disclosed figures for the first few weeks of the year, due to the two weeks of heavy snow (19-25 February and 26 February-4 March).
On the motorway network of the group's foreign concessionaires, traffic in the first quarter shows an overall increase of 3,8% compared to the same period of 2017.
Finally, in the first quarter, the group's airports recorded passenger growth of 1,8% for Aeroporti di Roma and 10,1% for Aéroports de la Côte d`Azur.
Read also: Dividends 2018: 23 billion coupons arrive on April 2rd. Here's who disconnects
