London wait for us: we are about to arrive. And the message of Green Network, Roman electricity company, which since its establishment in 2003 has been able to conquer a respectable position in the Italian energy market. AND prepares for a leap in quality, thanks to a plan for the next three years: acquisitions, listing on the Stock Exchange e landing across the Channel with a goal of 400 customers to be conquered by 2019, for a turnover of 400 million pounds.
An emigration? No, if anything, a doubling because in the meantime the company, today strong by one customer base in Italy of 300 thousand unitsa turnover around one billion euros (1,02 billion to be exact), aims to hit the target of one million contracts in the Bel Paese in the same period with a turnover of 1,2 billion and a margin of 8% (100 million ebitda). Minimum target, given that the figures in the plan do not take into account future acquisitions "which, however, will probably exist", he anticipates Giovanni Barberis, the financial director arrived in Green Network to take care of the creation of an adequate financial structure to support the evolution of the business: from trader of energy imported from abroad to protagonist of the electricity exchange, from producer of renewable energies to entry into the retail market.
Today, faced with the evolution of the market (production overcapacity) and thanks to the potential of technology, Green Network is changing its skin again: from energy producer to service provider in a market open to competition. Both in Italy and in Great Britain, a country with clear and transparent rules, ready to welcome a new competitor who presents itself as a pure merchant, who buys and sells energy guaranteeing supplies, adequate prices and good services. Capable, moreover, of circumventing the dangers of the sector (such as the suffering of customers) or the costs of acquiring contracts, pushed upwards by the competition.
Green Network faces with flattering numbers this new step of its adventure started in 2003 when Piero Saulli, former top manager of Enel, and Sabrina Corbo, business lawyer specialized in the energy sector, they decided to found the company of which they are still the only two shareholders today. Since then Green Network has forged ahead creating a group active along the entire electricity supply chain: energy and gas trading (13 Twh of energy and 216 mcm of gas); the direct management of 243 megawatts (produced in 43 plants) as well as 20 megawatts in renewable energies.
In the growth of Green Network, surprising in some respects in a difficult market such as that of energy, however there have been moments of tension with consumers and friction with the Supervisory Authorities, linked above all to the aggressive trade policy. Just a month agoAntitrust, following around 300 reports from individual customers, consumer associations and the Energy Authority itself, opened proceedings for non-compliance against the company, linked to the previous fine of 240.000 euros due to unsolicited activations of the gas and electricity supply. Request managed by call centres, often located abroad; a phenomenon that also affected other energy groups.
Today Green Network counts on a staff of 283 employees (of which 70% graduated, average age 33 years) and a first line led by the founders but strengthened not only by Barberis, former CFO of Acea and d'Amico, byformer Enel executive Giuseppe Martini which boasts a long experience in relations with large customers. The company, which has today reached 300 million in turnover and an ebitda at the end of 2015 of 24 million, currently has no debts and obtained a B.2015 rating from Cerved in October 1.1, equivalent to S&P's BBB/BBB+.
It is with these numbers that Roman society is preparing to challenge the winds of Brexit. Who knows, sailing against the current is sometimes lucky.
