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  3. Annual Financial Report at 31 December 2019 examined and approved by the Board of Directors
5 March 2020
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 Financial

Annual Financial Report at 31 December 2019 examined and approved by the Board of Directors

Milan, 5 March 2020 

The Board of Directors of Infrastrutture Wireless Italiane S.p.A. (INWIT), meeting today 5 March 2020 under the chairmanship of Enrico Maria Bignami, examined and approved the Company’s draft Financial Statements at 31 December 2019.

Results at 31 December 2019

The adoption of accounting standard IFRS16, as already highlighted in the previous interim reports and detailed in the specific paragraph, has altered the breakdown of the main economic and equity indicators.

For FY 2019, we note the following:

  • REVENUES stood at 395.4 million euros, up 4.5% on the same period of 2018 (378.5 million euros). It should be noted that the periods in question include one-off revenues. More specifically, for FY 2019, these came to 10.1 million euros (quantification of the indemnity in favour of INWIT envisaged by the release mechanism in the MSA contract for 2015/18), whilst for FY 2018, they came to 3.9 million euros (penalties for non-hosting). Net of these items, the comparison with the same period of 2018 showed growth of 2.9%.
  • EBITDA came to 349.8 million euros, up 62.4% on FY 2018 (up 63.1% excluding both the already-mentioned one-off revenues and the one-off costs relating to the Daphne project – integration with Vodafone Towers – of 5.3 million euros). This value benefited, for an amount of 122.9 million euros, from the adoption of accounting standard IFRS 16, in application of which, with reference to lease contract payables not constituting the provision of services, the relevant lease charges are no longer included amongst the purchase costs of goods and services but must be posted, on the statement of financial position, as a financial liability, represented by the current value of future lease charges, and in the assets, the right of use of the asset leased, amortised for the probable duration of contract. Additionally, December 2019’s EBITDA was influenced by the negative impact of non-recurring charges for a total of 0.6 million euros (consisting of the expenses and provisions made for incentives to take early retirement).
  • Comparable EBITDA for FY 2019 – prepared using the previous accounting standards – comes to 226.8 million euros, up 5.3% (4.9% net of said one-off revenues/costs) on FY 2018. The EBITDA MARGIN was 57.4% (56.9% in 2018).
  • EBIT was 219.8 million euros, up 9.7% (+9.5% excluding said one-off revenues/costs) on the same period of 2018; comparable EBIT for 2019 came to 209 million euros, up 4.4% (+4% net of said one-off revenues/costs) on FY 2018.
  • PROFIT was 139.3 million euros, down 1% on the same period of 2018 (-1.7% excluding said one-off revenues/costs); the comparable earnings for the period of 2019 amount to 146.5 million euros, up 4% (+3.5% net of said one-off revenues/costs) on the 2018 equivalent.
  • Data for the Fourth Quarter of 2019 alone showed, at comparable values with the same period of 2018, a considerable increase in all main indicators: +11.3% EBITDA, +10.4% EBIT and +8.6% period earnings.
  • BUSINESS INVESTMENTS for the period came to 64.8 million euros, up 3 million euros on FY 2018 (61.8 million euros).
  • NET FINANCIAL DEBT was 712.1 million euros, including, in particular, the 640 million euro increase deriving from the application of the new accounting standard IFRS 16 (Leases). Excluding this impact, the net financial debt was 72.4 million euros, an increase on 31 December 2018 (48.1 million euros).

During the year, there was also a clear increase in the number of tenants, thanks to the expansion of the customer base, not only to include mobile operators but also fast-growing new businesses with an increasing need for connectivity (FWA and IoT): this took the CO-TENANCY RATIO up to 1.95x (number of customers per site).

“The approval of the 2019 financial statements marks a close of phase in the history of INWIT. Four years after the birth and listing on the stock exchange, we can boast excellent results.” – Chief Executive Officer, Giovanni Ferigo stressed -. “The company has not only expanded upon its customer base through new hospitality opened up to other operators and new TLC players using different technologies and applications, like Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) or Internet of Things (IoT) services, but has also gradually and increasingly optimised its high quality infrastructures, making the most of the various technological opportunities as they emerge and, therefore, setting itself up as leaders in Italy in the development of Small cell and Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS).

“Today, on the strength of this success” – Mr Ferigo has announced – “INWIT is preparing to embark on a new phase, in which it will be a big player in the consolidation of the telecommunication infrastructures sector. Our company will be the enabler of innovative solutions, smart cities, industry 4.0, indoor coverage in crowded buildings and areas, speeding up the spread of 5G and thereby contributing towards the country’s development. This increased role of INWIT on the Italian industrial scene, also forces us to pay new, closer attention to the environmental sustainability of our activities. For the first time, the company” – the Chief Executive Officer concluded – “will be presenting a three-year Sustainability Plan with precise objectives to be achieved including those set by the UN, with initiatives for employee well-being, the use of clean energy and the purchase of low environmental impact products and services”.

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