José Manuel Entrecanales: “Companies must assume leadership in the pursuit of the balanced development of society; it is a need and a responsibility and also offers opportunities”

In 2010, ACCIONA reported consolidated revenues of 6,263 million euros and an EBITDA of 1,211 million euros, 16.1% more than the previous year.

ACCIONA's General Shareholders' Meeting gives its go ahead to the new composition of the share structure, which it sees as a way of increasing transparency; the Chairman emphasizes the "the desire and the intention of permanence of the two shareholders of reference".

The GSM greenlights Sol Daurella's appointment as Independent Director and accepts Tristan Garel-Jones's decision to step down.

The Chairman & CEO calls for long-term policies and stable regulatory frameworks for renewables and energy efficiency.

Chairman and CEO José Manuel Entrecanales today stressed the business sector's role as a social agent and emphasized its importance as a means of taking on the changes required for strengthening the structure of international governing bodies, designing an energy model environmentally and geopolitically more sustainable, returning to the path of economic growth and ensuring balanced progress and development.

Addressing ACCIONA's General Shareholders' Meeting, Mr. Entrecanales expressed his belief that "companies are duty-bound and need to exercise leadership in the pursuit of the balanced development of society -and they need to take the long view". He pointed out that "ACCIONA is well-positioned because our shareholder stability allows us to plan long-term, and this is not only an asset for the Company but also one of our main competitive advantages", referring in this sense to "the desire and the intention of permanence of the Company's two shareholders of reference".

ACCIONA's General Shareholders' Meeting gave the go-ahead to the merger of Grupo Entrecanales and its subsidiaries, a move aimed at increasing transparency in the share structure. The operation means that the five shareholder groups that make up Grupo Entrecanales will become direct owners of their stake in ACCIONA, with no financial impact, no stock watering and no changes to the ultimate ownership of the stakes.

Once the merger is completed, ACCIONA's two shareholders of reference-who represent the family-owned groups led by José María Entrecanales de Azcárate and Juan Entrecanales de Azcárate (each with a 24.72% stake)-will concede reciprocal preferential acquisition rights, thus ensuring the Company's shareholder stability.

The GSM gave the green light to the appointment of Sol Daurella as Independent Director and accepted Lord Tristan Garel-Jones's decision to step down from the Board. The Meeting also gave the go ahead to Belén Villalonga's reappointment as Independent Director. The ACCIONA Board is now made up of thirteen directors, eight of whom are independent.

The Shareholders' Meeting approved the Company's results and their application, which includes an FY2010 dividend of 3.1 euros per share (3% more than last year), to be paid out as of July 25th. 

The Meeting gave the go-ahead to the introduction of good corporate governance practices, including the individual assessment of each Board Member and giving the GSM a consultative vote on the Company's compensation policy; changes to the Company's Corporate Bylaws to bring them into line with recent legal changes; and the extension for another fiscal year of the Company's Shares and Options Plan for Executives currently in place.

A forward-looking strategy

José Manuel Entrecanales went over the Company's positioning and strategic lines of action for future growth. He highlighted the 70% growth in the Infrastructure division's public works portfolio, focused primarily on Poland, Canada, Brazil, Australia and Chile, and which has offset to a great extent the considerable dip in the portfolio for Spain. Mr. Entrecanales also pointed out that the cuts foreseen in public investment will mean that business strategy will remain focused on ACCIONA's thrust for internationalization, "with particular emphasis on ACCIONA Engineering, industrial infrastructures and private clients".

ACCIONA Agua has also played a relevant role as a driver of ACCIONA's international expansion efforts: the water services arm's international activity went from 12% in 2007 to more than half (51%) in 2010, clinching important deals including the Mundaring (Australia) drinking water plant or water treatment plants in Lima (Peru) and Atotonilco (Mexico); the latter is the largest of its kind in the world. Mr. Entrecanales stressed that this market is "particularly prone to the economic crisis, and considerable investment cuts in the Spanish water sector are expected in the future". This in turn, warned ACCIONA's Chairman & CEO, "will come as a serious stumbling block to the much-needed improvements to purification levels".

The contribution by renewables

Moving to Energy, Mr. Entrecanales placed particular emphasis on ACCIONA's position as the world's number three renewable energy operator (with a total 7,587MW of installed capacity), and also underlined renewables' key role in the energy model and their contribution to economic growth. He cited as an example "the [Spanish government's] Renewable Energies Plan 2011-2020, currently being debated, which foresees an estimated direct net profit of 6,000 million euros from renewables, to which we should add a further 33,000 million-worth of indirect profit".

In addition to this positive economic impact, renewables will help Spain to overcome its energy dependence and avoid supply and security uncertainties; strengthen the country's role in the fight on climate change, and help it to meet GHG emissions reduction targets.

ACCIONA's Chairman & CEO called for "immediate action and the adoption of long-term policies and stable regulatory frameworks aimed at exploiting everything that energy efficiency and renewable energies have to offer".

José Manuel Entrecanales turned the spotlight on innovation as a source of competitive advantage for ACCIONA, which explains the Company's 88 million euros' worth of investment in R&D and Innovation (representing 37% of pre-tax profit).