In a "normal" listed company to distribute lavish money dividends to shareholders it's the minimum wage. In a company where the main shareholder is Rai, the Public Radio and Television Service, which pays a substantial ticket for the services rendered by its subsidiary (over 180 million euros a year) should be a little less so. In other words, corporate profit is not everything and it would be desirable for at least part of it to be allocated to investment and development. This did not happen: in the Shareholders' Meeting of Rai Way, held yesterday morning in Rome, a dividend of 0,2196 euros per share was approved for a total of 59,7 million euros, i.e. the entire profit 2018. Once again positive numbers were shelled: revenues growing with a positive sign of 1,5 million compared to last year, EBTDA extension with +2,4%, Net income to +6,2 for a total of 59,7 million. Needless to say, the Company is in excellent health. The managing director, Aldo Mancini, had a good time in maintaining that for 2018 Rai Way represented a year of further implementation of its strategy.
The CEO himself once again touched on the theme of the so-called "tower pole” which we have dealt with several times in this newspaper. “The broadcast towers constitute a strategic infrastructure for the country and for the public service. Rai Way, while aware of the complexity of the regulatory and legislative context, is considering aggregation projects whose objective is to promote an overall rationalization of the networks that ensures benefits for citizens, communities and territories”. We are at the end of the day, nothing more and nothing new other than reiterating the interest that society could have in the creation of such an infrastructure which would undoubtedly represent an advantage for the national interest.
As regards how, with what strategic understanding and with which possible pole models one can reason, a complete, exhaustive and convincing answer has not emerged. "Look carefully" is the refrain that for some time now all the stakeholders have been repeating in unison but no one, so far, has come out in the open proposing any merger project, as well as a hypothesis of corporate structure, governance. Perhaps someone is beginning to believe that this idea could be a train that has already passed and that now the running trains are of a different nature, see the new cable distribution platforms.
Rai Way's core business is represented by the management of the towers, the iron, where for a few more years most of the radio and television signals will pass through DTT. How much longer will this model work? Since yesterday, many television users, increasingly younger, are enjoying television content in different ways and times than the traditional distribution platform. How to deal with these dynamics? New markets, new customers, new products? Of note is the recent agreement (Memorandum of Understanding) between Rai, Rai Way and Open Fiber for "the launch of Ultrabroadband and Ultra HD experimentation projects".
Speaking of markets: as far as we read about revenues, the data are clear: from 2014, the year of listing on the stock exchange, those from Rai, the main shareholder with 64%, have progressively grown (from 172,3 million in 2014 to 184,6 in 2018) while those from third parties have progressively decreased (from 35,1 million in 2014 to 33,1. XNUMX current). All this means that the only "market" that appreciates these dynamics, as claimed by the outgoing president Raffaele Agrusti, is the share market where a significant and positive evolution of the value of the share has been detected.
At the end of the meeting, on the proposal of the shareholder Rai, it was proposed and voted as new Chairman of the Board of Directors Mario Orfeo, former General Manager of Viale Mazzini. Could this be a year of transition? There is a significant simultaneity between the launch of the new industrial plan of Viale Mazzini and the industrial plan of Rai Way which expires this year. In the first there is no trace of the quotation. Of the second, we will see what the development prospects will be.
