Financial disclosure

In compliance with the Policy for the Management of Relations with Institutional Investors, Shareholders and Bondholders (Engagement Policy), Acea had around 450 interactions during the year with institutional investors, analysts and bondholders, through participation in events also held digitally: “one-on-one” meetings and wider presentations, investor conferences, roadshows. Furthermore, conference calls and webcasts were held during the approval of the annual and interim results and numerous contact was made with analysts/investors including through email exchanges.

In 2023 around 130 studies/notes on the ACEA stock were published. Six business banks analyse Acea shares with a high level of continuity: five brokers gave the Acea share a “neutral” rating and one a “good” rating at 31 December 2023.

ESG ANALYSTS EVALUATE ACEA

The interest in Acea from “sustainable” investors continued. Based on an analysis carried out in November 2023, ESG investors represent 6.1% of Acea’s share capital (6.4% in the previous year) and about 45% of the total number of its institutional investors (compared to 51% the previous year). They consist mostly of European funds, followed by investors from North America.

Acea’s position in assessments by analysts, ratings and ESG benchmarks is shown below.

Acea was classified by CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project) in the Leadership category with a A- level, an improvement with respect the score the previous year. In particular the commitment to establishing target climates which were subsequently validated by SBTi was particularly commended. CDP is the international organisation of reference, supported by over 750 international investors, with over 130 thousand billion in assets under management, which promotes attention on the global management of the risks and impacts of climate change, inviting companies to provide structured and precise information on the subject. Each year the CDP publishes a ranking of its assessments for each organisation. Over 23,000 companies, of which 5,600 European, participate in CDP research, including the topics of water security and deforestation.

Acea saw its sustainability solicited rating raised by the independent agency Standard Ethics (SE), with a rating of EE+ (investment grade, F/EEE scale), as well as its positive outlook and long-term expected rating. In particular, the analyst commended the process of alignment with international recommendations (UN Guidelines, EU Taxonomy, etc.) and integration in industrial activities, plans for significant investments in various areas seen as central to the transition to a sustainable economy, appropriate implementation of ESG objectives and alignment of sustainability reporting with best practices in the sector.

In the rating assigned by the French ESG agency GAIA Rating (EthiFinance Group), Acea received a score of 64/100, substantially in line with the previous year (62/100). The agency assesses companies in 4 areas of analysis: governance, social, environment, and stakeholder relations. In particular, in 2023 Acea achieved the following scores: Governance 76/100, Social 73/100, Environment 90/100, External Stakeholder 80/100. When compared with the other 50 utility companies evaluated, Acea was in line with the benchmark.

For the fourth consecutive year, in 2023 Acea was found on the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index; the analyst has not yet published evaluations for the year while the most recent figure available, from 2022, gave Acea a score of 81.58. This index is intended to support gender parity, both in disclosures and in company practices (for more information see the paragraph Diversity, inclusion and welfare in the chapter Staff).

During the year Acea also received ESG ratings from other major players: Sustainalytics, assigned the Company a Low risk level, with a score of 19.7, a small improvement over the Medium risk level and 20.1 score in 2022, demonstrating the efforts made by management; MSCI ESG Rating confirmed its “A” rating (scale from AAA (leader)-CCC).