The Shareholders’ Meeting approves the 2017 Financial Statements

23 April 2018 at 13:14

• Consolidated turnover of €884.4 million (+13.3%);
• Group net profits of €77.9 million (+ 15.3%).

The proposal to distribute a dividend of €0.35 per share has been approved..
The Board of Directors and the Board of Statutory Auditors have been appointed for the three-year period 2018-2020.
Resolutions in relation to the purchase and/or sale of own shares.

Reply S.p.A. Shareholders’ meeting [MTA, STAR: REY] today approved the Financial Statements for the financial year 2017, confirming the distribution of a gross dividend of €0.35 per share (up 21.7% compared to the previous year, taking into consideration the equity split occurred in October 2017, which converted each ordinary share, having a nominal value of €0.52 into 4 new ordinary shares, nominal value of €0.13).

The dividend will be paid on 9 May 2018, with dividend detachment date set on 7 May 2018 and record date 8 May 2018.

Financial Statements of the 2017 financial year

The Reply Group closed the 2017 financial year with a consolidated turnover of €884.4 million, increasing by 13.3% compared to the €780.7 million turnover of 2016. EBITDA amounted to €123.2 million (€106.4 million in 2016), while EBIT amounted to €113.9 million (€99.6 million in 2016).

The group net profit amounted to €77.9 million, an increase of 15.3% compared to the €67.5 million net profit recorded in 2016.

The Shareholders’ Meeting also approved the following resolutions:

Appointment of the Board of Directors and the Board of Statutory Auditors for the next three years

The Shareholders’ Meeting appointed the new members of the Board of Directors and the Board of Statutory Auditors for the three-year period 2018-2020, on the basis of the lists of candidates presented.

Appointed Directors were:

• Mario Rizzante (Chairman), Tatiana Rizzante, Filippo Rizzante, Daniele Angelucci, Claudio Bombonato, Elena Previtera and Fausto Forti, taken from the majority slate presented by the shareholder Alika S.r.l. (holder of a 45.1% stake in Reply S.p.A.), which obtained the highest number of votes (61.19 % of votes obtained);
• Secondina Giulia Ravera and Francesco Umile Chiappetta, taken from the minority slate submitted by a group of investors (holders of a total stake of 1.744% of the share capital of Reply S.p.A.).

The nominated Board of Statutory Auditors consists of three members and two alternates:

• Giorgio Mosci (Chairman) and Giancarla Branda (Alternate Auditor), taken from the minority slate presented by a group of Investors (holding a total stake of 1.744% of the share capital of Reply S.p.A.);
• Piergiorgio Re (effective), Ada Alessandra Garzino Demo (effective), Stefano Barletta (alternate), taken from the majority slate presented by the shareholder Alika S.r.l. (holder of a 45.1% stake in Reply S.p.A.), which obtained the highest number of votes (65,10 % of votes obtained).

The CV of the Directors and Statutory Auditors and the additional documentation required by current legislation are available in the investors section of the website www.reply.com  

Resolutions in relation to the purchase and sale of own shares

The Shareholders ‘Meeting authorised a new programme for the purchase of treasury shares, withdrawing the one currently approved in the Shareholders’ Meeting of 21 April 2017: the main objective of this programme is the purchase of shares to service the stock incentive plans, transactions aimed at the acquisition of investments, extraordinary financial transactions and/or the conclusion of agreements with strategic partners.

The authorisation has a duration of 18 months from the date of the resolution, for a maximum of 7,478,256 ordinary shares (equal to 19.9892% of the current share capital) with a nominal value of €0.13 each for a maximum nominal value of €972,173.28, within the limit of a maximum financial commitment of €100,000,000. The purchase price cannot be lower than the nominal value (currently €0.13) and higher than the official price of the trades registered on the MTA market the day before the purchase increased by 15%.

Approval of the Remuneration Report

The Shareholders’ Meeting also approved Section I of the Remuneration Report prepared pursuant to Art. 123-ter of the Legislative Decree. No. 58/1998.

The manager responsible for preparing the company's financial reports, Dr Giuseppe Veneziano, states in accordance with Paragraph 2 of Article 154-bis of the Consolidated Finance Act, that the accounting information contained in this press release corresponds to the company's records, ledgers and accounting entries.

This press release is a translation, the Italian version will prevail.