ADR Group: Board of Directors approves Q3 report at 30-Sep-2009

After the losses generated in Q1 and Q2, the Group operating result is positive again in the third quarter for 19.3 million euro, benefiting from Alitalia-CAI recovery consolidation at Fiumicino and of the seasonal traffic positive trend. Q3 good performance impacted positively on the result of the first nine months of the year, with a net profit of 4.2 million euro.

The fall in traffic volume in the airport system remained stable around 5-6% in comparison with last year, however the general trend improved, showing the first signs of recovery in the low cost segment.

In Q3 ADR Group revenues equalled 157.2 million euro with an operating result of 50.5 million euro as a result of the good traffic performance in the period, recording a 9.8% increase in passenger traffic against Q2 2009.

Compared to the same period of 2008, turnover is lower, in particular for non aviation revenues that were down 7.9%, as a result of a reduction in the number of passengers and in customers' purchase propensity.

With reference to the first nine months of 2009 the Group revenues, that reached 420.3 million euro, were down 3.3% against the previous year, mainly as a result of the underperformance of non aviation activities (-5.0%) and, to a lower extent, of aviation activities (-1.7%).

Against an overall reduction of 6.7% in operating costs, the EBITDA, equal to 191.8 million euro, recorded a 0.7% decrease against the same period of 2008, while the operating result, that reached 94.8 million euro, decreased by 9.9% as a result of increased depreciation and amortization.

The Group results were affected by the drop in traffic volume (-5.9% for passengers and -7.7% for movements) as well as by the impact of the company reorganisation plan, started in the beginning of the year by implementation of the employee mobility procedure pursuant to Italian Law 223/91, whereby the Group undertakes to improve efficiency in a period of lower traffic.

The substantial decrease in interest rates and the effects of the debt partial restructuring implemented in March 2008 allowed to control the net financial costs, that decreased by 12.1% against the same period of last year.

ADR Group net financial debt, equal to 1,349.1 million euro at 30 September 2009, increased against 31 December 2008 (1,321.9 million euro) as well as against the end of the first semester 2009 (1,340.0 million euro) as a result of the increase in working capital also caused by the non-recovery of a large amount of the accrued receivables from Alitalia extraordinary administration.

Also at the second and last due date of the year (the next will be in March 2010) ADR obtained from financial creditors the waiver to apply the so-called cash sweep to repay/collateralize the debt as provided for under the loan contracts in relation to the rating assigned to the company.

The parties concerned are primarily committed to find an agreed solution that avoids to resort to mandatory options thus anticipating the consequences of further deterioration of the swap counterpart.

After approval of article 34 bis of Italian Law Decree 102/09 (so-called "Anti-Crisis Decree"), which introduced the possibility to derogate from the charge regulatory system in order to support the activity of airport operators with over 10 million passengers per year - with the aim to foster medium- and long-term infrastructure development in line with growing needs - ADR S.p.A. announced to Enac its willingness to open a technical negotiation to agree on a number of decisions in terms of flexibility and modularity in planning capital expenditure so to speed up and streamline the approval of a sustainable Airport Development Plan, in line with air traffic potential growth opportunities and supported by a charge scheme that allows the remuneration of the financial resources invested.

On the proposal of the Ministry of Infrastructure and of the Ministry of Economy, CIPE approved an order authorising pre payment of boarding charges up to max 3 euro per passenger. The Inter-ministerial Decree provided for by CIPE resolution is expected to be issued soon.