Summary of operations and income, equity and financial performance of the Group

 Definition of alternative performance indicators

On 5 October 2015, ESMA (European Securities and Markets Authority) published its guidelines (ESMA/2015/1415) on criteria for the presentation of alternative performance indicators which replace, as of 3 July 2016, CESR/05-178b recommendations. This orientation was acknowledged in our system in CONSOB Communication no. 0092543 dated 3 December 2015. The content and meaning of the non-GAAP measures of performance and other alternative performance indicators used in these financial statements are illustrated below:

• for the Acea Group, the gross operating profit (or EBITDA) is an operating performance indicator and from 1 January 2014 also includes the condensed result of equity investments in jointly controlled entities for which the consolidation method changed when international accounting standards for financial reporting IFRS 10 and IFRS 11 came into force. EBITDA is determined by adding the Operative Result to “Amortisation, depreciation, provisions and impairment”, insofar as these are the main non-cash items;
• the net financial position is an indicator of the Acea Group’s financial structure, the sum of Non-current borrowings and Financial liabilities net of Non-current financial assets (financial receivables excluding a part of receivables related to Acea S.p.A.'s IFRIC 12 and securities other than equity investments), Current borrowings and Other current financial liabilities net of current financial assets, cash and cash equivalents;
• net invested capital is the sum of “Current assets”, “Non-current assets” and Assets and Liabilities held for sale, less “Current liabilities” and “Non-current liabilities”, excluding items taken into account when calculating the net financial position;
• net working capital is the sum of the current receivables, inventories, the net balance of other current assets and liabilities and current debts, excluding the items considered in calculating the net financial position.