After the quarterly accounts presented last week, the shareholders' meeting of Terna, which met on Monday morning, gave the green light to the budget 2019 and dividend of 24,95 cents euros per share. After the down payment, the balance of 16,53 euro cents per share will be paid on 22 June. Green light from the shareholders to the new Board of Directors which will remain in office until 2023. A changing of the guard that took place in Coronavirus mode, i.e. with a remote meeting via the Web.
Luigi Ferraris and Catia Bastioli a mandate with very positive economic and financial results comes to an end. The new three-year period opens with the entry of the Bocconi university Valentina Bosetti president and Stefano Donnarumma CEO, coming from Acea.
Despite the unusual meeting via the Web, 68% of the share capital still participated – through designated representatives. For Luigi Ferraris and Catia Bastioli it was an opportunity to say goodbye to partners and employees after respectively three and six years of work. And to retrace the results achieved. Revenues at 2,3 billion (+4,5%), net profit at 753 million (+7,2%) despite 1,3 billion investments (+15,9%) and many important infrastructure projects completed (such as the " bridge" Italy-Montenegro) or others, such as the Italy-France interconnection, currently under construction. This is the Terna that Ferraris and Bastioli are handing over to the new top management while, they both noted, the biggest energy transformation since the discovery of oil is underway.
The shareholders benefited from it with 24,95 cents of dividend but not only.
"The Terna stock it closed 2019 at €5,954/share, with an annual performance of +20,2%” underlined Ferraris, recalling the peak of €6 reached on 6 November. They consider the stock market performance and the dividend paid, the “total return for the shareholders – he added – it was 25,1%. From 27 April 2017, the day of my taking office, to the end of 2019, total return has increased by 46%, outperforming the performance of the DJ Stoxx Utilities, the European reference index. Finally - he concluded - on February 19, 2020 the title marked the new historical high, equal to 6,786 euros per share, corresponding to a market capitalization of 13,6 billion euros”.
Catia Bastioli, for her part, recalled the shift towards sustainability undertaken by Terna in 2014 and strengthened in 2017. "All the investments included in Terna's plans - the outgoing president underlined - are subjected to cost-benefit analyses, always implying an effect for the electricity system - and ultimately for the community - higher than the construction costs. I also recall that part of the funding was raised - in 2018 and 2019 - through the issue of Green Bonds".
Looking to the future, the new 2020-24 Plan earmarked 7,3 billion for new investments. It will now be up to the new top management to pronounce on the strategy and to carry it forward. The new board will be composed of 13 members: Valentina Bosetti, Stefano Antonio Donnarumma, Alessandra Faella, Yunpeng He, Valentina Canalini, Ernesto Carbone, Giuseppe Ferri, Antonella Baldino, Fabio Corsico, Marco Giorgino, Gabriella Porcelli, Paola Giannotti and Jean-Michel Aubertin. The first nine were part of the list of the relative majority shareholder, Cdp Reti, while the others were presented by a group of shareholders made up of asset management companies and other institutional investors.
Also named the Board of Statutory Auditors, which will be composed of Vincenzo Simone, Raffaella Fantini and Mario Matteo Busso as standing auditors; and by Barbara Zanardi, Massimiliano Ghizzi and Maria Assunta Damiano as alternate auditors.
Finally approved the incentive plan long term for management andpurchase of treasury shares up to 10 million euros.
