Stalexport Autostrady Capital Group 2019 Summary

Mysłowice, 2 March 2020

For the Stalexport Autostrady Capital Group, 2019 was marked by an increase in sales revenue and a decrease in net profit related to payments to the State Treasury. The most important events of the previous year include: payment of dividends to the shareholders of Stalexport Autostrady S.A., total prepayment by Stalexport Autostrada Małopolska of the remaining debt under a long-term loan agreement to finance the A4 Katowice-Kraków project, as well as the launch of videotolling - a new payment method for motorway toll.

In 2019, the revenue generated by the Stalexport Autostrady Capital Group reached the level of PLN 351.5 million and was over 4.4% higher than in 2018. Net profit grew by 57% and totalled PLN 80.4 million. EBIDTA of the Capital Group amounted to approx. PLN 194.2 million.

The rise in revenue mainly resulted from a change in the toll fees for trucks introduced on 1 March 2019. The average traffic intensity on the A4 motorway Katowice-Kraków was similar to the one in the previous year and amounted to 45.6 thousand vehicles per day.

The drop in net profit is a consequence of payments to the State Treasury arising from the obligations of the concessionaire of the A4 motorway Katowice-Kraków, Stalexport Autostrada Małopolska, set forth in the Concession Agreement. They constitute State Treasury’s Share in Profit
from the A4 motorway Katowice-Kraków and are calculated as at 31 March and 30 September. This calculation is based on the amount of distributed cash, which is calculated after the payment of the project costs and crediting the required reserve accounts. In 2019, net costs related to payments to the State Treasury amounted to PLN 88.8 million.

The drop in net profit was also determined by the rise in sales costs in connection with the establishment of provisions for the replacement of surface in the amount of approx. PLN 31 million.

Stalexport Autostrada Małopolska has also made a full prepayment of the remaining debt arising from a long-term loan agreement concluded on 28 December 2005 for the financing of the A4 Katowice-Kraków project, i.e. PLN 59.66 million.

One of the activities aimed at reducing financial costs and operating costs as well as simplifying the structure of the Capital Group involved adopting a plan of trans-border merger of Stalexport Autostrady S.A. with Stalexport Autoroute S.à r.l, with its registered office in Luxembourg.

In May 2019, the shareholders of Stalexport Autostrady S.A. were paid a dividend in the amount of PLN 37 groszes per share, allocating to this end PLN 91.5 million from the supplementary capital of the company.

In November, 89,500,000 G-series ordinary bearer shares of Stalexport Autostrady, with a nominal value of PLN 0.75, were admitted to trading on the stock exchange.

The concessionaire of the A4 Katowice-Kraków motorway continued in 2019 a programme consisting in the modernisation and development of motorway infrastructure, and in July it launched videotolling - a new automatic payment method based on the Autopay application which reads the vehicle’s registration plate using a camera on the motorway tollgate. The A4Go electronic toll collection was also developed, with 37 thousand on-board devices being issued. Considering the growing popularity of automatic payments, in January 2020 preferential toll fees for Autopay and A4Go users have been introduced, which enabled to travel cheaper by as much as 30% at each gate.

The investment outlays of the Stalexport Autostrady S.A. Capital Group amounted to over PLN 32.5 million in the previous year. The motorway drainage system was modernised, the repairs of bridge structures were continued.

The replacement of motorway road surface was conducted as part of maintenance work.

As regards the results achieved by Stalexport Autostrady S.A., which performs the supervisory function in the Capital Group, in 2019 its sales revenue generated primarily by office space rental services grew slightly and amounted to approximately PLN 3.77 million.

On the other hand, the net unit profit increased more than twofold, i.e. to approx. PLN 10.4 million, thanks to the dividend in the amount of PLN 10.9 million obtained by the Company through Stalexport Autoroute S.à r.l under the concession company.

Emil Wąsacz, CEO of the Management Board of Stalexport Autostrady S.A. Stalexport Autostrada Małopolska S.A.:

The investment outlays planned for 2020 will amount to approx. PLN 83 million. We intend to launch a new online sales and customer service website with post-paid service for the A4Go electronic toll collection (currently the only possible option is prepayment). The modernisation of the motorway drainage system will be continued and the culverts located within the motorway's right-of-way will be modernised. We will also complete the repair works on one of the bridge structures. This year, we also intend to complete surface replacement and extension of access to the gates intended for automatic payments.

We follow attentively the announcements that videotolling will also be possible on the motorways managed by the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways (GDDKiA) because for many years we have made efforts to unify the toll collection systems in Poland and make it easier for drivers to use the motorways.