Operating (and financial) outlook

The results achieved by the Acea Group at 31 December 2018 are better than the forecasts.

The Group is determined to carry out significant investments in infrastructure that, without affecting the solidity of the consolidated financial structure, have an immediate positive impact on performance, EBITDA and billing and collection processes.

The Group’s financial structure is solid for the years to come. At 31 December 2018, 78.9% of debt is fixed rate in order to ensure protection against any increases in interest rates as well as any financial or credit volatility. At 31 December 2018 the average duration of medium/long-term debt stood at 5.8 years. It should be noted that the reduction of its average cost went from 2.59% of 31 December 2017 to 2.21% of 31 December 2018.

For the year 2019 Acea expects:

• an increase in EBITDA between 4% and 6% compared to 2018;
• an increase in investments up by over 10% compared to 2018;
• a net financial debt at the end of the year between € 2.85 and € 2.95 billion.