PRESS RELEASE

ENVIRONMENT: ANTITRUST AUTHORITY LAUNCHES INVESTIGATION INTO HERA, HERA AMBIENTE AND  AKRON FOR A POSSIBLE ABUSE OF DOMINANT POSITION

In markets related to paper recycling in a number of municipalities in Emilia-Romagna. A measure notified today to the parties during certain inspections carried out in cooperation with the Antitrust Group of the Special Market Protection Unit of the Guardia di Finanza (Italian Tax Police).

The Antitrust Authority launched an investigation into Hera, HeraAmbiente and Akron, all belonging to the same corporate group, to see if they have created an abuse of dominant position in the markets related to the collection of waste paper.

The HERA group holds a monopoly through the parent company Hera S.p.A. in the collection of municipal solid waste (RSU) and the like in all the municipalities of the provinces of Forlì-Cesena and Ravenna, in the majority of Municipalities in the provinces of Rimini, Bologna and Modena and in the Municipality of Ferrara by virtue of direct contracts, currently in the stage of extension. HeraAmbiente operates in the business of constructing and operating treatment facilities, materials and energy recovery and waste disposal. Akron operates instead in the field of environmental services, which builds and operates plants for sorting and waste treatment, both ordinary and special, aimed at recovery and reclamation, securing contaminated sites and exhausted landfills and waste disposal and transport.

According to the measure in today’s notice to the parties, during the inspections carried out by officials of the Antitrust Authority together with the Special Market Protection Unit of the Guardia di Finanza (Italian Tax Police), the three companies may have engaged in conduct that distorts competition via the mechanism of supplying cellulosic waste derived from the collection of municipal solid waste. This supply seems to take place directly and without competition from Hera to HeraAmbiente and from there to Akron, at a price below the market price.

The distortion of competitive dynamics would be reflected in the downstream market for cellulosic waste recovery and the sale of waste paper to paper mills, whereby the supply could allow Akron an advantage not replicable by its competitors. The conduct of the three companies could have an effect in the upstream market for the collection and transport of municipal solid waste, as it would result in setting an excessively high level of TARSU/TIA, i.e., the cost of urban hygiene services: the lower prices practiced in Akron, in fact, would result in lower revenues for Hera and, therefore, in greater burdens borne by the citizens who have to pay for the abovesaid urban hygiene services.

Rome, 13^th December 2012