The Abertis Board of Directors appointed John Santamaria as the new President of Abertis on Tuesday. Santamaria, the current CEO of ACS, replaces Marcelino Fernández Verdes, whose mandate expired this year. On the other hand, the current CEO of the Abertis Group, José Aljaro, renewed his position for three years in the ordinary meeting of the General Shareholders held in the morning.
The shareholders of Abberts have approved the proposal of the resolution already issued by the Board of Directors of the company on February 28, which renews the members that make up the board of Abberts, due to the expired mandate this year. . After the changes approved this Tuesday at the general meeting of shareholders, the Abertis Board of Directors is made up of the following nine members;
In addition, the Abertis general meeting this Tuesday unanimously approved all the proposals and resolutions proposed by the Board of Directors on February 28.
Santamaria is not alone in joining the board of directors of Abertis, since the governing board has approved the nomination of Jonathan Kelly as director, who will in turn replace Carlos Bertazzo, who also gave his mandate to the honor.
Who is John Santamaria?
Gradually after Civil Engineer, Santamaria entered the concession area of the ACS group. A role that led him to practice his profession in countries outside of Europe. In this way, the newly appointed president of Abertis has grown in role in countries such as the United States of America, Canada, South Africa, Chile and Australia.
The first steps in the construction of society were taken in the United States. Headquartered in Miami, Santamaria completed his role as general manager and chief operating officer of ACS Infrastructure for North America and Canada. A position he held between 2006 and 2013, where he demonstrated his resolve in management and business administration.
After this stage, Santamaria became part of Iridium, in charge of the company’s concessions group. Later, the engineer made the leap to Cimic, a company where he held the position of CEO and director, serving as the head of contractor management for CPB, the company’s construction branch, together with UGL, the business service. .
Good point Abertis
Santamaria arrived in Abertis at the right time for the company. The chief engineer takes the company that closes the financial year 2022 with the growth of traffic in the countries in which it operates. The company stated that the end of mobility restrictions due to the pandemic, once the health emergency has been overcome, has allowed the recovery of the financial and operational indicators of the group to stabilize in a business that has been conditioned by it for more than two years. the development of the pandemic. Thus, the company’s EBITDA closed the year at 3,536 million coins, an improvement of 5.5% compared to the previous year and 16% in a similar perimeter with 2021. Also, the revenues of Abberti increased in 2022 to 5,102 million coins, cash, 5.1% more than in 2021, due traffic growth in full post-pandemic recovery and despite the conversion of concessions completed in Spain and Chile in 2021.
The normal recovery of traffic levels from Abertis, one of the world’s largest motorway concessionaires, not only wanted to reach pre-pandemic levels, but 3.3% more than in 2019. According to the annual financial results presented by the concessionaire. The Commission of the National Securities Market (CNMV), the group closed last year with an increase in traffic of 8.2% compared to 2021.
The improvement of the market in all the markets in which it operates allowed Abertis to strengthen its contribution to the EBITDA of the group, with 39% from the French market, followed by Mexico (14%), Chile (12%), Spain (11%), Brazil ( 10%) and Italy (7%). In this sense, Abertis highlights in the annual accounts the development of the business in the territory of North America, that is, the United States and Puerto Rico, with a contribution that already exceeds 5% of the general EBITDA. The positive development of the Abertis business in 2022 led the Board of Directors to call an Ordinary General Meeting, to be held on March 28, among other topics, to propose a distribution to its shareholders of 602 million euros.
