In the course of the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders held today in Barcelona, the Chairman of Saba, Salvador Alemany, and the Managing Director of the company, Josep Martínez Vila, took stock of the financial year 2021, in which the group's business was still affected by the development of the health crisis caused by Covid-19, especially in the first quarter, to embark on a recovery over the course of the year thanks to the gradual improvement in the epidemiological situation.

Regarding the review of the financial year 2021, the Managing Director explained that Saba "continued to monitor the impact of the pandemic, in particular by protecting the health of the company's whole workforce, and its effects on both financial and business activity, with the aim of returning to normality at all levels and protecting the company's financial solvency."

In 2021, thanks to a gradual recovery parallel to the phasing out of pandemic-linked restrictive measures, Saba's rotation business, with a majority holding by CriteriaCaixa, was 29% up on 2020, though still 30% down on 2019. Meanwhile, subscriber numbers in 2021 were 3% up on the previous year but remain 9% down on 2019. With regard to the main figures, operating revenue in 2021 came to 234 million euros, 18% up but 22% below 2019, and the EBITDA stood at 103 million euros, 43% more than in 2020 but 25% down on 2019. Saba invested 25 million euros in the financial year 2021.

Recovery was sustained in the first quarter of 2022, with a 78% increase in rotation, though this was 21% down on 2019, and a 17% increase in the number of subscribers, already reaching the same level as in 2019. There was also a 39% rise in revenue, 13% down on 2019, and an 83% rise in EBITDA, 20% down on 2019.

In terms of growth, in 2021 Saba agreed development operations, including new projects and renewals, in all the countries where it works. Josep Martínez Vila reviewed this area, in Spain highlighting concession contracts for the car park at the Gregorio Marañón university hospital in Madrid, and at the Delicias dock in the port of Seville, among others, as well as the deal reached in 2022 to overhaul and improve the car park in the Plaça d'Europa, Platja d’Aro (Girona province), a project in which the company is to invest 1.8 million euros.

Saba sees parking as a service hub for sustainable urban mobility, taking advantage of strategic city-centre locations, capillarity and uninterrupted service to work as an integral part of policy and in the mobility chain for people (electric vehicles, sharing, unipersonal mobility) as well as goods (last mile).