Abbanoa's 2022 financial statements presented by the Board of Directors led by the engineer Franco Piga and made up of directors Daniela Sacco and Salvatore Ledda.

The green light came this morning from the shareholders' meeting (Region and 342 shareholder Municipalities) convened in the conference room of Palazzo Doglio in Cagliari. The 2022 financial year, although with a positive operating margin of over 13.73 million euros, closed with a negative result of approximately 11 million euros.

Prudently, in these financial statements the Company has written down the credits for deferred tax assets (IRES and IRAP) which may not be reasonably recoverable in the residual period of time until the end of the agreement for the assignment of the integrated water service (December 31, 2025) and operating taxes. The "pre-tax" result is in fact positive for 721 thousand euros.

The loss of 11 million was fully covered by Abbanoa's extraordinary reserve funds (which amount to approximately 60 million euros) and will not affect the Company's business or the financial statements of its Shareholders.

Investments – The 2022 financial year confirms Abbanoa's fundamental role in investments in Sardinia with important repercussions for the island's economy. 129 tenders were awarded, for a value of over 160 million euros: of these, most of them were awarded to Sardinian companies individually or in temporary groupings of companies or professionals. The chairman of the Abbanoa Board of Directors, Franco Piga, underlined in his report the strong action of the Company in investments and in particular in the efficiency of water networks. "We are carrying out a very strong network redevelopment action", explains Piga: "The maxi-tender of over 42 million euros of the PNRR funds is being published: thanks to our projects, Sardinia has been awarded 20 percent of the funds available for the whole of Southern Italy destined for this purpose. Furthermore, in December we awarded 33 contracts for a total amount of 27 million euros from the European Development and Cohesion Fund "FSC" to which we have just added a further 29 interventions for 38 million euros whose contracts with companies have been signed just in these days respecting the obligation of commitment on 30 June”.

Water saving – Abbanoa manages 46 large aqueducts totaling 4,300 km long, 7,700 km of urban water networks, 360 sewage treatment plants, 6,600 km of sewage networks, 1,800 pumping plants and 46 purification plants. The efficiency improvement and fight against water losses carried out by Abbanoa has already made it possible in recent years to increasingly reduce the amount of water withdrawn, treated and distributed on the network: from the 272 million cubic meters introduced into the network in 2013, it to just 227 million cubic meters in 2027 with a decrease of no less than 45 million cubic meters in eight years. During 2022 Abbanoa also extended its area perimeter by acquiring the management of Capoterra and the Asinara Island.

Operating margin – Once again this year operating costs are lower than in 2002 (231 million euro compared to 248 million in year zero of the Area Plan in current currency) and an operating margin was achieved (by subtracting the operating costs to revenues from sales) positive for 13.7 million, with a significant difference compared to 2002, when, with the sum of the previous managements, the operating margin for the year was a loss of 66.5 million euros despite the increase in operating costs due to inflation.

Operating costs - The economic and financial context in which Abbanoa found itself operating starting from February 2022 has changed radically compared to the previous year. Specific inflation in the water sector was even higher, in particular for the components relating to chemical reagents, which increased by 33 per cent, and to ordinary and extraordinary maintenance activities, with the regional price list of public works undergoing an average increase of 40 percent. The increase in electricity, which accounts for about 12 percent of Abbanoa's production costs, was instead neutralized thanks to a discounted price contract stipulated through the public platform Consip: in 2022 the energy bill was 41, 7 million euros (6 million less than in 2021).

Growing revenues and turnover – In recent years Abbanoa has completely revolutionized the detection of utility consumption. The certified readings via electronic PDAs and the invoicing exclusively on balance are now fully operational, reaching 85 percent of the total. Furthermore, data certification is guaranteed through the innovative “blockchain” information technology. In 2022, 729,613 users were active. The invoices issued in one year were over 2 million 261 thousand with an average amount of 190 euros. Turnover was 411.5 million euros, an increase of 12.9 percent over the previous year. Complaints are down, going from 32,000 in 2010 to just 24,000 in 2022 (equal to about one percent of invoices issued).

(Unioneonline)

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