The General Shareholders’ Meeting of Buzzi Unicem SpA met in Casale Monferrato on 10 May 2018 to approve the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2017.

The Shareholders’ Meeting approved the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2017 and resolved to distribute a dividend of €0.120 per ordinary share and of €0.204 (including €0.06 as total allocation of the preferential dividend for financial year 2015 and 2016) per savings share.
The dividend payment will be effected as from 23 May 2018, with detachment on 21 May 2018 of coupon no. 20 for ordinary shares and coupon no. 21 for savings shares, and with record date on 22 May 2018.

Consolidated net sales came in at €2,806.2 million vs. €2,669.3 million in 2016 (+5.1%) and Ebitda stood at €508.2 million (€550.6 million in 2016). The income statement reported a consolidated net profit of €391.6 million vs. a profit of €145.9 million in 2016. As at 31 December 2017, net debt amounted to €862.5 million, down €79.1 million from €941.6 million at 2016 year-end. As at 31 December, 2017, total equity, inclusive of non-controlling interests, stood at €2,852.1 million vs. €2,806.9 million at 2016 year-end. Consequently debt/equity ratio decreased to 0.30 from 0.34 in the previous year.

In 2016 the parent company Buzzi Unicem SpA reported a net profit of €50.8 million versus a net loss of €46.4 million in 2016, with a cash flow of €77.7 million.

Moreover the Shareholders’ Meeting resolved to authorize the Board of Directors, for a length of 18 months, to buy-back a maximum of additional no. 7,000,000 ordinary and/or savings shares, under the terms and conditions of the Board of Directors’ proposal, up to a maximum amount of €210 million.
The proposed purchase price, inclusive of ancillary charges, ranges from a minimum of €0.60, equal to par value, to a maximum of €18 for savings shares and of €30 for ordinary shares, or at the highest price allowed by the market general rules approved by Consob, in case these rules were adopted by the company.
The treasury shares can be purchased on the market, according to Borsa Italiana rules. Moreover the company can avail itself also of the procedure provided by the market rules approved by Consob, as well as of those pursuant to art. 5 of Regulation (EU) no. 596/2014.
The above authorization is required to allow the company to intervene in case of fluctuation of the shares price beyond the normal market volatility, within the extent allowed by the law and the market rules, as well as to give the company an instrument for liquidity investment. The authorization is also required to allow the company to purchase treasury shares in order to use them as a payment in extraordinary transactions, also of equity interest swap or of conversion of bonds already issued or of possible future issuance, or for distribution, for a consideration or without consideration, to directors and employees of the company or its subsidiaries as well as for allocation to shareholders without consideration.
Based on the previous authorization of the ordinary Shareholders’ Meeting of 12 May 2017, #450,000 ordinary treasury shares were transferred to third parties as partial consideration within the "Cementizillo" business combination.
As of today the company owns #50,000 ordinary treasury shares and #29,290 savings treasury shares equal to 0.04% of capital stock.

Moreover the Shareholders’ Meeting confirmed, upon proposal of a group of Italian and foreign institutional investors, the appointment as director of Luca Dal Fabbro, who was co-opted by the Board of Directors on 8 February 2018 and meets the independence criteria required by Legislative Decree no. 58/1998 and by the Code of Conduct of Borsa Italiana.
The director’s curriculum is available on the company’s website www.buzziunicem.it.

Finally, the Shareholders’ Meeting favorably resolved upon the report on remuneration ex art. 123 ter of Legislative Decree no. 58/1998.

The manager responsible for preparing the company’s financial reports, Silvio Picca, declares, pursuant to paragraph 2 of Article 154 bis of the Consolidated Law on Finance, that the accounting information contained in this press release corresponds to the document results, books and accounting records.

Company contacts:
Investor Relations Officer
Agostino Pieressa
Phone. +39 0142 416 221
Email: apieressa@buzziunicem.it