Hera Group: control of Aliplast reaches 80%

Today, Herambiente completed the purchase of a further 40% of the Treviso company's shares, and the ensuing change in governance. The remaining 20% of the shares of this national leader in plastic recycling will be acquired within June 2022, as foreseen in the deal signed last January.

Today in Bologna, Herambiente, a Hera Group company and leader in Italy in waste treatment and recovery, completed its purchase of an additional 40% of the shares of Aliplast, a primary national figure in plastic collection and recycling and subsequent regeneration.

With this operation, which follows up on the first step taken on 3 April 2017, the amount of Aliplast shares held by the Hera Group rises to 80%. As foreseen by the binding deal signed by both parties in January, the remaining 20% of Aliplast shares will be purchased within June 2022.

The sum paid by Herambiente in purchasing the further 40% of Aliplast comes to € 51.8 million, which includes the contribution collected as an energy-intensive company and the earn-out portion for having reached increasing results as regards EBITDA in 2016. The purchase was carried out with the Group's own resources.

Since the majority of shares is now held by the Hera Group, Aliplast's governance has been modified.

In particular, Aliplast's Shareholders Meeting, which came together immediately following the completion of the additional 40% by Herambiente, resolved to enlarge its Board of Directors, going from five to seven members, four representing the Hera Group and three from Aligroup. The new and thus composed BoD, in its first sitting, which took place on today's date, appointed Carlo Andriolo and Roberto Alibardi respectively as CEO and Chairman of the company.

The acquisition of Aliplast, which is to be considered alongside the similar operations finalised in 2015 and 2017 involving the Treviso company Geo Nova and the Tuscan companies Waste Recycling and Teseco, has allowed the Hera Group to consolidate its own market presence with a distinctive trait, both unique and concretely in line with the principles of a circular economy. This element makes it possible to offer the Group's clients trustworthy and ever-more integrated solutions, able to complete and round off the virtual circle of sustainability: from collection and treatment of plastic deriving from production scrap waste, to the regeneration of new products.

Due precisely to its own specific features, Aliplast was one of the elements that qualified the Hera Group to be admitted to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's international CE100 program, which brings together the world's leading 100 companies that stand out for their commitment to the transition to a circular economy.

Founded in 1982 by Roberto Alibardi and headquartered in Ospedaletto di Istrana (Treviso), Aliplast is a national leader in industrial plastic waste collection and in regenerated polymer recycling and production, with roughly 80,000 tonnes of plastic material recycled every year. It was the first company in Italy to reach a full integration spanning the entire plastic lifecycle: from environmental services in managing and collecting packaging and industrial scrap waste to manufacturing and market sales of packaging products and materials made out of plastic recycled by the company itself. Aliplast employs approximately 350 people in its five Italian and three foreign (Spain, France and Poland) facilities.

'We are continuing along the path we have set out for ourselves in purchasing this company', remarks the Hera Group's Chairman, Tomaso Tommasi di Vignano. This operation has already led to significant business results and synergies, allowing us to integrate and enrich our activities in the environmental sector with a know-how and professionalism that is unmatched by our peers in the European panorama. This second step in the acquisition moves towards further growth, preparing us to continue to take on the challenges involved in sustainability and innovation, overcoming them together to the benefit of the Group and the areas it serves.'

'Being part of such a large company having deep roots in the communities served, as well as financial solidity and widely diversified specialisations, such as the Hera Group', explains the Chairman of Aliplast, Roberto Alibardi, 'allows us, more and more every day, to broaden our horizons. It furthermore provides additional assuredness in continuing to develop our skills through a greater amount of attention given to research and technological innovation. This is the direction towards which we work on a daily basis, just as, at the same time, we are committed to furthering the process of integration and extending our competence in a sector as complex as plastics, following the business objectives defined together and pursuing new and ever more challenging goals'.