Abertis maintains its commitment to international growth and diversification based on the principles of discernment, rigour and long-term commitment

01/04/08

The company focuses on industrial rationale and aims to influence the management of companies in which it holds stakes, and, if circumstances permit, move toward partnership or merger projects

- abertis enjoyed a record year in 2007, in both the continuity of its expansion strategy and in terms of its recurring (and rising) income at its five business divisions.

- The group maintains its 2008 forecast for growth in a more complex environment requiring a more discerning approach to projects, and will continue to use the rigorous and analytical criteria which have characterised its performance to date.

- abertis will continue to make industrial investment a priority, using a long- term investment horizon and directly participating in management.

- Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Chile, Mexico, Brazil, the United States and an expanded Europe are markets to which abertis will give priority when analysing business opportunities.

- Shareholders approved payment of a gross final dividend of EUR 0.28 per share, to be paid on 11 April. The total dividend charged against 2007 earnings is EUR 0.56, i.e. 12% higher than the 2006 dividend. Dividend payments total EUR 357.5Mn.

- Shareholders approved a scrip issue consisting of one new share for every 20 shares, with nominal value of EUR 3 per share, a transaction worth a total of EUR 95.7Mn.

- abertis Chairman Isidre Fainé highlighted the stability and strength of the company's group of core shareholders, after Criteria Caixa Corp and ACS increased their stakes.

Barcelona, 1 April 2008. abertis group maintains for 2008 its growth forecast and strategy of international expansion and diversification, analysing potential business opportunities using criteria of discernment, rigour and long-term commitment in its investments. This was reiterated today by abertis Chairman Isidre Fainé and Chief Executive Officer Salvador Alemany at the abertis General Shareholders' Meeting held in Barcelona.

In this regard, Isidre Fainé pointed out that abertis "is committed to ongoing growth based on the principles of prudence, analysis and a sense of reality," and listed a series of countries to be considered in the study of possible business opportunities: Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Chile, Mexico, Brazil, the United States and the countries making up the expanded European Union.

Along the same lines, abertis CEO Salvador Alemany assured shareholders that "we are committed to growth in a market that continues to present opportunities, though we will be more discerning, looking for projects which have higher capital requirements and thus lower debt; and also likely more reasonable prices, and possibly fewer competitors, but in a market which is competitive as ever.""If we maintain our growth forecast, it's because in the current environment it is necessary to use not more prudence than we had already been using, but rather the same: the same rigour, the same discernment and the same commitment."

Both Isidre Fainé and Salvador Alemany stressed that, after abertis consolidated its international presence in 2006 with the addition of the French toll road concessionaire sanef, in 2007 the group "confirmed and enhanced a trajectory shaped by a capacity for expansion and by the remarkable growth of all of our business indicators."

According to the abertis CEO, "the strength of 2007 earnings and our constant attention to identifying and pinning down expansion opportunities allow us to maintain our growth forecasts in an environment that is doubtless more uncertain and complex."

Abertis: global player with a networked business project

The growth abertis registered in 2007, which comes on top of the projects consolidated in the past three years, "confirms our position as a global player," said the abertis chairman, who added that "the abertis project is an integrator, in a world which lacks a defined geographic centre, a business project which, in the same way as infrastructure, is built in a network and operates in a network."

As part of an overview of abertis' expansion in 2007, Isidre Fainé made reference to the following transactions:

- Eutelsat and Hispasat, in the telecommunications business.

- Acquisition of the airport holding company DCA.

- In the car parks business, saba undertook new projects in Rome and Santiago de Chile.

- The acquisition of new logistics parks in Madrid and Barcelona, and the new project in Santiago de Chile, in the logistics division.

- In toll roads, a project headed by sanef to implement a dynamic toll system on the Dublin ring road.

Turning to 2008, within the toll road sector, he mentioned a project to acquire ACS' stakes in Chilean toll road operators Autopista Central and Rutas del Pacífico.

Future projects: profitability and improvement in concessions

The abertis CEO returned to this message of growth, this time looking ahead to future projects. Salvador Alemany reiterated that "in a business like that of abertis, with an extensive range of concessions, growth primarily means improving (prolonging) the average life of our assets."