Hera Group: first step in Aliplast acquisition completed

Herambiente's purchase of the first 40% of shares of the Treviso-based company, a national leader in plastic recycling, was completed today. A further 40% will be purchased within March 2018 and the remaining 20% within June 2022.

The acquisition by Herambiente, a Hera Group company and national leader in waste treatment and recovery, of 40% of shares in Aliplast, a widely recognised protagonist in the sector of plastic waste collection and subsequent regeneration, was brought to completion in Bologna today.
A further 40% of the company's shares will be acquired within March 2018, and the remaining 20% within June 2022.

The overall amount involved in purchasing 40% of Aliplast comes to roughly € 35.4 million, to which one must add a further € 1.2 million for receiving, in 2014, a contribution as an energy consuming enterprise. The purchase was carried out using the Group's own resources.

This important operation, complementary to the ones involving Waste Recycling (Castelfranco di Sotto, Pisa) and the environmental assets of Geo Nova (Treviso) in late 2015, as well the more recent acquisition of Teseco (Pisa) plants, is part of the path towards enlarging the Hera Group's consolidated scope, pursued as of some years, and is in line with the Group's strategy of geographical expansion and integration.

Thanks to the acquisition of Aliplast, alongside the recent announcement of the beginning of works on the first biomethane production plant, in the area surrounding Bologna, the Hera Group has consolidated its position as a leader in furthering the principles of a circular economy, in which waste is transformed into resources. Suffice it to recall that even in 2016, without the contribution coming from these plants, Hera recycled 64% of packaging products, compared to the 65% set as an objective for 2025, and recovered over 94% of sorted waste.

Established in 1982 by Roberto Alibardi and based in Ospedaletto di Istrana (Treviso), Aliplast is a national leader in plastic industrial waste collection and regenerated polymer recycling and producing, with over 80,000 tonnes of plastic materials recycled every year. It was the first enterprise in Italy to fully integrate the entire life cycle of plastic, from environmental services in managing and collecting industrial residues and packaging to production and market sales of manufactured goods and packaging materials, produced with plastic recycled by the company itself. Over 300 employees work in Aliplast's five plants in Italy and three abroad (Spain, France and Poland).

'We are very satisfied with this signing - states Tomaso Tommasi di Vignano, Executive Chairman of the Hera Group - which represents an important step towards the complete acquisition of Aliplast. With this operation, we have given new momentum to our long-standing commitment to a circular economy, giving full value to a company that was a pioneer in Italy, offering many lessons and acting ahead of its time. The future - Tommasi continues - must be shaped by bringing to fruition the most outstanding experiences in our own tradition. This will contribute to further growth and allow us to continue overcoming, together, to the benefit of the Group and the areas served, the challenges in sustainability and innovation that await us.'

'Today is an important day for Aliplast - adds Roberto Alibardi, Administrator and principal shareholder of Aliplast. Now that we have concretely become part of the Hera Group, a new era has indeed opened up, in which the know-how developed by Aliplast will be given further value and expanded, working in the interests of our present and future clients. We will continue working within the company, therefore, to favour the process of integration and formulate the type of managerial contribution that is most appropriate in pursuing the industrial objectives we share with our new partner, together with whom we are eager to achieve new goals.'