An investment plan of over half a billion euros (524,105,091 euros) in five years was unanimously approved by the Shareholders' Meeting of CAP Holding, thus launching a real Green Deal of the Metropolitan City of Milan. The costs are frozen, as is profitability, for the first two years to give space to investments earmarked for developing increasingly smart infrastructures and services, digitisation processes, circular economy projects, scientific research and industrial symbiosis. This is the approach of the shareholders of CAP Group, the public company that manages the integrated water service of the Metropolitan City of Milan, who unanimously renewed their trust in Chairman Alessandro Russo, also appointed CEO of the water company which with a turnover of over 300 million euros and a capitalisation of over one billion euros is among the most important mono-utilities in the country.
At the helm of the public company since 2014, Alessandro Russo was confirmed Chairman at the end of the Shareholders' Meeting held yesterday, 21 May. Only 38 years old, Russo is leading one of the top mono-utilities in the sector in Italy with almost 900 employees. He will remain in office for another three years together with the directors Karin Eva Imparato, also reconfirmed, and the newly elected Luciana Dambra, Alberto Fulgione and Barbara Mancari. The Shareholders' Meeting unanimously approved the consolidated financial statements, the financial statements of the parent company and the Investment Plan for 2024, previously approved by the Board of Directors of CAP Holding on 20 April. In detail, the total revenues reached 369,265,065 euros, almost entirely connected to the water service, registering a 6% increase compared to 2018 (348,162,207), while the management balance is equal to 32,259,106 euros. The operating result in 2019 amounted to 52,152,525 euros, while the EBITDA is 109,181,127 euros. Investments in technical fixed assets amounted to 107,441,854 euros, an increase of 12.6% compared to 2018 (95,452,714).
The Shareholders' Meeting also approved the purchase of shareholdings in CORE, the Energy Recovery Consortium whose waste-to-energy plant about to end its activity by spring 2021 is the focus of the Sesto San Giovanni Bioplatform project, which thanks to an investment of 56 million euros intends to become a point of excellence for the production of biomethane from the wet fraction of waste (FORSU) and for the valorisation of treatment sludge.
This is the first green hub in Italy that involves the transformation of the Sesto San Giovanni waste-to-energy plant and the adjacent CAP Group treatment plant into a Bioplatform dedicated to circular economy. The plant will be carbon neutral (with zero CO2 emissions), and able to use treatment sludge and the wet fraction of waste to produce biomethane, clean energy and eco-fertilisers. The project is unique thanks also to the active participation of the stakeholders, already involved in its preliminary phase through a participatory process that began in November 2018 and gave the possibility of including citizenship requests in the final project.
The construction of the Bioplatform will bring 547 new jobs to the territory, 2,200 vehicles powered by biomethane each year, a drastic reduction in carbon dioxide of up to 92% compared to the emissions of the current plant, the redevelopment of green areas, the use of the best technologies on the market for the containment of fumes that will fall by 76% and odours that will be drastically reduced, thanks to the double chamber for loading the FORSU. The final project was completed last November and delivered to the Lombardy Region in March of this year for the start of the Single Regional Authorisation Order (PAUR), which includes, among others, the VIA (Environmental Impact Assessment), waiting to pass to the tender for the executive design in August.
The New BOD
The Chairman and CEO Alessandro Russo, born in 1982 and with a degree in Political Sciences from the State University of Milan, has been at the helm of CAP Group since 2014. He has held the position of Vice-Chairman of Utilitalia and coordinator of the Association's Water Board of Directors since 2017 and is the Chairman of Confservizi Lombardia. From 2014 to 2019 he served as Vice-Chairman of Ape, a European association that brings wholly public water service managers together. In the past he has been involved in social and housing policies, as a director of the Triulza Foundation, Housing Sociale Foundation and In Domus Srl.
Karin Eva Imparato was re-confirmed, a Director since 2014, expert in environmental law and former Vice-Chairman of the Territorial Division of the Metropolitan City of Milan. The new CAP Group Board of Directors includes three new entries: Luciana Dambra, project manager with international experience; Alberto Fulgione, former Mayor of Liscate and Barbara Mancari, court cassation lawyer.
