State assets fetch increased dividend for 2019
The Hellenic Corporation of Assets and Participations (EESYP), better known as the state asset hyperfund, has announced increased revenues and profits for 2019.
Its revenues amounted to 61.9 million euros, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) reached 56.5 million euros, and after-tax profits came to 57.2 million euros. This is an almost fourfold increase on it 2018 figures, which were revenues of 17 million euros, EBITDA of 12.7 million and net profits of 13 million.
The positive course of EESYP’s figures is exclusively attributed to the increased dividends the hyperfund collected last year from the assets it manages, amounting to 61.2 million euros against 17 million in 2018.
Although all assets contributed toward that growth, the main sources of those dividends were the Public Properties Company (ETAD) and Athens International Airport: ETAD contributed a dividend of 21.2 million euros and AIA another 16.25 million.
The Athens Water Company (EYDAP) was another important source of profits, with a dividend of 14.38 million euros, up 35 percent from the year before. OTE telecom paid 2.47 million euros, an increase of 56 percent from 2018, and even railway properties company GAIAOSE fetched profits of 4.4 million euros, probably for the first time since it was founded in 2001. The only corporations to pay a reduced dividend last year were the Thessaloniki Water Company (EYATH) and Corinth Canal SA (AEDIK).
The effect of the improvement in EESYP’s profits in 2019 will be the considerable increase in the dividend to enter the state coffers within 2020. According to the company’s management, the dividend is expected to amount to about 42 million euros.
“By constantly implementing actions aimed at strengthening the professional and independent management of the state property transferred to it, EESYP has in a short period since its foundation managed to increase the yields of public corporations, as well as improving the management of their capital and liquidity reserves,” the company’s chief executive officer Ourania Aikaterinari stated.
“The strong profits of 2019,” she added, “highlight the importance of the active monitoring of corporations in the broader state sector to improve public revenues. The increased dividends will serve the creation of greater fiscal space.”
