Aigües de Barcelona earns 4.9 million and cancels the dividend out of prudence

Aigües de Barcelona, ​​the company owned by the Agbar group, Criteria and the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, closed the 2021 financial year with a profit of 4.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
01 June 2022 Wednesday 23:20
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Aigües de Barcelona earns 4.9 million and cancels the dividend out of prudence

Aigües de Barcelona, ​​the company owned by the Agbar group, Criteria and the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, closed the 2021 financial year with a profit of 4.9 million euros, according to the figures approved yesterday by the shareholders' meeting. The benefit grew by 25.6% compared to 2020, but it is still well below the 22.2 million in 2019, before the pandemic, so, as a measure of financial prudence, the board agreed not to distribute a dividend.

“Faced with the highly complex situation caused by the pandemic, Aigües de Barcelona has successfully resolved a new year of difficult management with a double objective: to guarantee the continuity of the service with the same quality as always and to preserve the health and safety of the workforce. ”, highlighted the company in a statement. In it, he also expresses his concern "over the permanent water shortage, a situation that is aggravated in a Mediterranean basin that suffers from great water stress."

With 1,122 workers, the company is dedicated to the supply and management of the water cycle in the Metropolitan Area. Its main shareholder is the Agbar group, with 70%, while Criteria and the AMB control 15% each. Ángel Simón, president of the Agbar group, also chairs the board of directors of Aigües de Barcelona.

Along with the results, a study was released on the impact of the company's activity on the economy, which places it at 0.23% of Catalonia's gross domestic product (GDP). In the water bill, 318 million euros of taxes other than water supply have been collected and an additional 46 million related to the water service have been borne. According to the Report on Integrated Social Value (VSI) prepared by the consulting firm Valora, the total impact of the activity of Aigües de Barcelona, ​​directly and indirectly, was 672.26 million, of which 557.68 million were generated in Catalonia (511.25 million in the metropolitan area). In addition, it highlights that Aigües de Barcelona has generated in 2021 the equivalent of a total of 7,288 full-time jobs in Spain, 13% more than in 2020. Of these, 6,191 were in Catalonia and 5,861 in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, ​​18% more than in 2020.

Another noteworthy fact is the commitment to local hiring. Of the total of 1,312 suppliers, 98.1% are Spanish and 71.11% are local and belong to the province of Barcelona.

The meeting also reviewed the social measures adopted, such as the implementation of the new social rate, a legal initiative that the company advanced in 2012 with the creation of the Solidarity Fund. With this fund, the bill has been reduced for more than 46,000 families with an investment of more than 20 million, until the implementation of the social tariff. In 2021, this social rate benefited more than 53,000 households, including pensioners, the unemployed and people in a vulnerable situation, which represents 4.9 million euros in subsidies.