A new brand for SEA which now is quoted on the Stock Exchange

“Every crisis brings changes. The deeper and more structured the crisis, the more the change could be radical.” With these words, SEA President, Giuseppe Bonomi, explained the new face of the company and the changes decided by the shareholders’ meeting. And therefore, there is the go-ahead for the budget and the go-ahead for the Stock Exchange listening, with a new brand and a new communication strategy. Because “we don’t have to endure the change but we have to handle it in order to turn the crisis into an opportunity.”

That SEA which is coming out of the crisis is, according to Bonomi, “a company that has completely renovated and restored its business”, and this enable it to overcome the hard blow suffered after Alitalia’s de-hubbing.

With all these conditions, the shareholders’ go-ahead to the points of the project which defines the criteria for the listing, came.

The 2010 balance sheet, with a result of clear improvement in comparison with 2009, received the go-ahead with consolidated pay-offs of € 633.7 million (+5.7%), consolidated EBITDA Margin of € 151 million (+6.8%), the net profit of € 63.1 million on the group level, 27 million passengers and of these, 18.7 only in Malpensa, the goods’ shipment which ranged 438,000 tons (+26.1%) and the net financial debt of € 344.7 million, improved by 4.8% in comparison with 2009. Also the first results recorded in the first 4 months of 2011 are positive, with the passenger traffic which increased by 10.1% and the goods traffic by the 12.7%.

The listing will take place through an offer in subscription of new flotation shares which derive from an increasing in capital. The meeting has conferred upon the company’s board of directors the required powers to carry out the plan.

The new shares will be object of a tender offer in which the different subjects, among which the employees, will be specified and the capital increase will be destined to them.

“The listing’s primary goals,” said the President, “are to strengthen even more the property structure of the company, as well as increasing our business’ skill and our visibility on the national and international market.”

In addition to the listing’s guidelines, President Bonomi also presented two important changes which concern the image and the communication of the company, “to give a clear sign of the many changes that have taken place”. The new brand was created by Pierluigi Cerri, is on a red bevelled square and it has three goals: creating a new brand SEA, consider the airports of Milan as part of a single reference point for the area of Milan and enhance the offer of the services in the SEA airports system. Then, the name of each airport will be matched with the name of the city of Milan to reaffirm the identity and the rooting of the airport system.

A new face but also a new communication, which stakes all on the web. In fact, SEA has also presented the new web portal which places on the Internet all the airport activities in Linate and Malpensa on a single platform which is divided in SEA (seamilano.eu); Linate (milanolinate.eu) and Malpensa (milanomalpensa1.eu; milanomalpensa2.eu).