On March 14, the Board of Directors of Open Fiber, chaired by Barbara Marinali, approved the Financial Statements, the Consolidated Financial Statements and the 2022 Sustainability Report.
The Open Fiber Group reached as of December 31st with the net ultra broadband coverage of 15.5 million real estate units (of which 13 million in FTTH and 2.5 million in FWA) confirming itself as network operator in optic fiber FTTH leader in Italy and among the first in Europe.
The 2022 Consolidated Financial Statements show growing numbers, both in terms of revenues and in terms of margins. In fact, revenues amount to approximately 470 million euros, up (+24%) compared to the approximately 380 million at the end of 2021.
EBITDA recorded a growth of 18%, from approximately 152 million euros in 2021 to approximately 179 million, with a margin that stood at 38%, despite discounting the costs for participating in the tender for the PNRR and the start of the construction activities in the 8 lots awarded under the Italy Plan 1 Giga in 3,881 municipalities. The net result is approximately -162 million euros (approximately -210 million in 2021). The net financial position amounts to -4.6 billion euro, of which approximately 660 million in shareholder loans, while investments made in the reference year are over 1.5 billion euro.
Con 6.2 billion euros already used out of a total plan of over 15 billion, Open Fiber is among the leading companies in Italy in terms of the amount of resources invested in the country. The network development plan saw a marked acceleration in 2022, in particular in the White Areas where the greatest efforts were concentrated: with approximately 20 thousand incremental kilometers of network built compared to 31 December 2021, more than 50% of what has been done since the beginning of the plan, for a total of over 57,000 km out of the approximately 88,000 km overall of the project.
Commercialization of services is open in 238 large and medium-sized cities (Black areas) and in about 4,700 small municipalities (Aree Bianche, where OF operates as a public concessionaire), of which about 3,300 are in FTTH. Since Open Fiber entered the market in 2017, Italy has reversed the trend that had pushed it to the bottom of the European digital rankings after years of low investments. Evidence of the positive result are the official documents of the European Union and AGCOM and the reports produced by theFTTH Council. In particular, according to the latest DESI report, Italy’s FTTH coverage increased from 34% to 44%, close to the EU average (50%).
At the end of 2022, the total number of active customers on the OF network was over 2.3 million. In September 2022, considering the data from the latest AGCOM Observatory, Open Fiber’s FTTH constituted around 65% of the Italian residential market.
With the aim of further accelerating the construction of the infrastructure and providing a concrete solution to the serious shortage of skilled labor affecting all infrastructure operators, Open Fiber has created the consortium together with the Autostrade per l’Italia Group Open Fiber Network Solutions, which is hiring and training professionals specialized in the construction of fiber optic telecommunications infrastructures. The Consortium – whose teams have been operational since the first half of 2022 – employed over 500 internal and external resources as at 31 December 2022.
Confirming the validity of the business model wholesale onlythere are over 300 operators in the TLC, broadcasting, energy ande-learning who have chosen Open Fiber as their main infrastructure and service provider.
The BoD has also approved the Sustainability Report 2022the document which for the third year of publication describes Open Fiber’s commitment in the field of sustainability, contributing to technological innovation and the creation of shared value both through the core business and through strategic relationships with suppliers, commercial partners , territories, universities, research centers and institutions.
“Innovation, sustainable digital transition and social commitment are the pillars of Open Fiber’s plan to equip the country with a technologically advanced infrastructure that favors Italy’s growth and competitiveness” commented Mario Rossetti, Chief Executive Officer of Open Fiber. “In a complex global context, characterized by inflation and a serious shortage of manpower, thanks to the support of our shareholders and the financial system – including international – we are carrying out an ambitious project, which has expanded with participation in the Italy 1 Giga Plan. We are strongly committed to completing coverage of the whole country with the ultra-broadband network, giving priority to the White Areas where the digital gap is most discounted: thanks to the acceleration achieved last year, 2023 will be the decisive year for the completion of the Bul Plan in 2024. With these objectives we have already invested over 6 billion, and continue to do so, to build the country’s digital future”.