Now entering the summary for 2021, Saba has continued to monitor the impact of the pandemic and its effects both on economic activity and on business activity itself, with the main objective of recovering normality at all levels. Hence, the activity revolution was characterised by a gradual recovery, with turning points and a certain stagnation in the first quarter, and others with increases close to those recognised in 2019, in correlation with the readjustment from time to time of the restriction measures adopted by the authorities, based on the very performance of health indicators in each of our countries.

To sum up, the expense control measures and investment prioritisation were maintained, while boosting technological projects with a clear orientation: stimulating commercial and business activities and guaranteeing efficient integration in a future of new car parks. In the employment area, initiatives also continued aimed at preserving the health of workers, including the partial continuity of the administrative teleworking of central services, and workforce dimensioning measures, in line with the changes in activity levels. Lastly, we maintained the processes to request the rebalancing of concessions and the renegotiation of contracts and the search for new market opportunities, encouraging the lengthening of the average portfolio contractual duration.

In 2021, Saba’s rotation activity rose by 29% on 2020, with 2020 being dragged down by the pandemic, although it is still 30% below 2019, while the number of subscribers was up 3% on the previous year and continues to be 9% less than in 2019. With regard to the main aggregates, operating income amounted to 234 million euros, up 18% on 2020 and 21% lower than 2019, and the EBITDA stood at 103 million euros, up 43% on 2020 and down 25% on 2019. Saba invested 25 million euros in 2021. Once again, I wish to highlight the effort in the financial area, with an exhaustive control of liquidity and debt which, in this second section, underwent a reduction despite the exceptional situation.

In the development area, of note was the culmination of different operations in Portugal and Chile. In Portugal, Saba secured a lease contract on Arena Expo’s car park (397 spaces), at the Lisbon exhibition centre and the lease contract on the “Torres Galp” car park (135 spaces), also in the capital, while in Oporto, the lease agreement on Garagem Sa da Bandeira (112 spaces) was signed, together with the renewal to operate the Ribeira car park (318 spaces).

In Chile, Saba was awarded the Bupa clinic car park management agreement (1,136 spaces), in Santiago de Chile, one of the largest hospitals in the country. Likewise, it concluded the management agreement to operate the Parque Arauco car park (8,477 spaces), a complex of five shopping centres and it managed to renew the car park management agreement at Arturo Merino Benítez airport (7,743 spaces) in the capital.

Already in 2022, Saba has signed an agreement for the refurbishment and improvement of the Plaça d’Europa car park in Platja d’Aro (Girona), a project in which the company will invest 1.8 million in euros, and in Italy, it expects to inaugurate a new car park in Genoa, with 422 spaces, once construction and the adaptation of facilities to provide a service to the Genova Benzi hospital have been completed. Likewise, in the Italian city of Trieste, the company was awarded the car park concession for the Cattinara hospital, with 470 spaces.

In terms of efficiency, operating management and service quality, it must be highlighted that Saba’s Care and Control Centre (CCC) currently has over 400 connected car parks in Spain, Italy, Portugal and the United Kingdom, with respect to 235 car parks in 2020

To consolidate the recovery, the Company’s resources range from commercial activity through to the adaptation of products, recovery of subscribers, electricity mobility and boosting new digital channels and the digitalisation of processes in general. In this regard, Saba continues to boost and reinforce strategic business initiatives such as the launch of the number plate reading, both for subscribers and in the rotation sector, at over 60 car parks, aside from the extension of e-commerce services business’s web page and Saba’s App (with a refurbishment and improvement of the functionality performed), extending it to all countries in which it operates. Its web pages received 1.7 million visitors in Spain, Italy, Portugal and Chile, and the number of its transactions amounted to over 78.00.E-commerce sales rose by 105% on 2020 and by 90% on 2019.

We continue working to ensure that car parks are something more than a space for cars and motorbikes and that they are also for bicycles and other personal micromobility vehicles, carsharing and rent a car, and intermodality systems, among others, and also with public transport. Saba must adapt the new habits of people and work to be a mobility benchmark adviser, with the ambition of favouring company growth and opening new lines of innovation in the sector and diverse income, which will contribute to its consolidation in the future. This could include the last mile (lockers, e-commerce, proximity distribution), and services at the car park itself: digital screens, vending machines, company fleets, car washes, among others.