Salvador Alemany President
Josep Martínez Vila Chief Executive Officer
Salvador Alemany: If one fact characterised 2014, it’s the increase of this perimeter experienced by the company, which fully corresponds to the explicit desire we’ve had since Saba was founded in 2011; that is, to maintain growth as the primary strategic challenge, even in an adverse macroeconomic environment. In this regard, in the 2013 Annual Report we foresaw that Saba was prepared to identify growth processes and acknowledge them, after achieving the internal transformation. Now, we have before us the evidence that our strategy roadmap was successful: the integration of Adif and Aena car parks and the awarding of Bamsa project —Barcelona’s municipal car parks network— means Saba will take a quantum leap to first class quality. We have increasedour operating centres by 70%, up to 350, and the number of parking spaces by 40%, up to more than 193,000 that the company counts with today.
We’ve situated our average concession life at 25 years, thereby ensuring the company’s future, and we’ve adopted new business management models with innovation and technology as a standard of quality and customer service. We cannot ignore in this perimeter increase achieved in 2014, the divestiture of two logistics parks and the refinancing of the Group carried out bythe company at the end of 2014. All these elements enable us to provide ourselves with financialresources to face a new stage of growth, as well as greater financial efficiency.
Josep Martínez Vila: A year ago we talked about potential expectations of recovery in activity, although from a cautious standpoint. In the last 12 months, and without ever losing sight of the principle of prudence, we have seen, especially in Spain, signs of recovery in economic activity, supported by an improvement in consumption. In 2014, and for the first time since 2008, theevolution of the activity in our car park business has been positive, with a 1.6% increase in comparable terms. Moreover, taking into consideration the new car parks that we’ve incorporated to our network, our activity has increased by 21.1%. For its part, occupation of the logistics parks in 2014 stood at 85%, thus maintaining its annual growth rate, from 78% in 2011. In summary, the Saba group’s operating income, considering the car parks and logistics parks activities, stood at €215 millions, while the EBITDA amounted to €93 million, with a 43% margin, which has increasingly evolved in recent years (despite a drop in activity) thanks mainly to the implementation of efficiencymeasures and new development operations.
In this chapter, I must emphasise efficiency as an important factorin 2014, which can be understood as the overall optimisation of the company’s management processes, the extension of remote management and implementation of LED technology in all countries where we operate, which has led to a reduction of 40% to 60% in lighting costs and a 25% decrease in terms of contracted power. To our growth and efficiency measures, I wouldhave to add, for 2014, a set of measures to enhance restructuring and commercial proactivity, the boost to innovation, new products and the development of new technologies applied to car parks. In this regard, it is noteworthy that in Spain we ended the year with over 4.4 million operations carried out in our car parks using the VIA T access and electronic payment device.
Josep Martínez Vila: We won’t abandon our main priorities, which go through reaching a larger dimension, a portfolio of balanced, quality contracts in terms of maturity and optimum levels of efficiency to achieve the company’s ultimate goal, whichis an IPO. And we will only achieve this if we remain true to our core values: efficiency,innovation and commercial proactivity and, finally, growth. Thus, in regard to our management challenges, weare facing challenges such as the consolidation of the Aena and Adif car parks but, above all, the integration of Bamsa network and the technological change, our business model and the large-scale maintenance involved. Our operational and technical goals are to further enhance our Assistance and Control Centre (ACC), deploy energy efficiency measures and implement VIA T in Portugal andItaly, strengthening the TAG system, similar to the VIA T, in Chile, system already operating in all car parks in this country.
We’re facing a future in which innovation, our product and services portfolio, the development of a digital channel and business activity will be key factors in being leaders and competitive, as well as differentiating ourselves from other operators and meeting the increasing demands of customers looking for quality. And Saba won’t be left behind. In 2015, we have already promoted new points in this field, such as the automation of discounts Renfeapplies to its customers at AVE station ATMs, in a firstphase, and in the VIA T, in a gradually implemented second phase, in addition to launching new measures in digital marketing and developing the new Saba App, with additional products and services. Finally, we will continue promoting the identification of opportunitiesfor organic and inorganic growth, being the geographical diversification one of the company’s main objectives. All of this isnecessary so we can become an international leader and reference in our sector.
Salvador Alemany: The management contract for 14 airport car parks (Mediterranean Lot) of the Aena network has given us a competitive advantage and management experience in economies of scale. The management and operation contract for the car parks in 51 Adif railway stations has enabled us to innovate and enhance our operational, technical and business management capacity with a significant impact on perimeter increase. The awarding in Novembe 2014 of 60% of the joint venture company, Bamsa, which will manage 26 car parks in Barcelona with a total capacity for 12,555 parking spaces for a 25-year period, is a public-private partnership operation that connects with our concessional nature and links to the territory and allows us to design a mobility management proposal for urban centres and to strengthen the company’s future.
What is this proposal by Saba? The network management of the centre’s car parks; decreasing congestion and improving mobility, with more interactive information (redesigned App and WiFi in the car park to plan trips), and better access (VIA T); quality of service, with more modern facilities, payment via mobile and value-added services such as e-commerce or microdistribution platforms; sustainability, thanks to environmental management with a goal of zero C02 emissions and quality certification; and intermodality facilitating coordination of use of the car park with other alternative means of transport to private vehicles. In short, converting the car park into a hub for services and an essential value generator for the urban mobility, sustainability and traffic management. A car park o the future.
