First of all, the strategies implemented by the Atlantia Group in order to diversify its services should be closely followed. As mentioned above, the current lack of diversity in the services offered by this company is a real obstacle to its growth and should be one of the strategic priorities for the coming years.
Atlantia should focus its efforts on developing its global presence. In order to follow this strategy, we advise you to take into account the acquisition of companies abroad as well as the signing of large international contracts.
The increase of the group's customer base, which could accelerate in the medium and long term. All the measures taken by Atlantia to win new contracts should be considered as opportunities for the development of the company's activities and therefore as elements likely to influence the share price upwards.
For some time now, governments have been tightening their regulations regarding road infrastructure. It goes without saying that these new regulations could represent a serious brake on the growth of the Atlantia Group and should therefore not be taken lightly.
The Italian group Atlantia is a specialist in the concession of motorway networks. But its activity is more diversified than it seems.
While most of its turnover is generated through toll revenues, another part comes from additional services such as commercial installations, the rental of optical fibres to telecom operators and various other consulting, support and troubleshooting services.
Atlantia's share price is currently quoted on the BorsaItaliana market in Italy. It is also included in the calculation of the FTSE MIB national stock exchange index.
We would like to give you some useful information about the Atlantia Group's sectoral environment by taking a closer look at its main competitors on the market.
First of all, the French construction and concession group Eiffage, which was created by the merger of the companies SAE and Fougerolle in 1993, is one of the biggest competitors of the Atlantia group. Since its creation, this group has strongly diversified its activities and is now active in public works with construction, infrastructure, concessions and energy and is positioned as the third largest construction group in France and fourth largest in Europe. The group has several tens of thousands of employees and operates in more than 70 different countries with more than 100,000 construction sites each year.
Also known as Actividades de Construccion y Servicos, the ACS group, listed on the Spanish Ibex 35 index, is also a major competitor for Atlantia. Specialized in the construction sector, the ACS group was created in 1997 through the merger of OCP Construcciones and Ginés Navarro Construcciones.
This is another French group, formerly known as Société Générale d'Entreprises or SGE. It is the world's second largest concession and construction company. It employs 222,397 people worldwide. Vinci's activities cover various segments including motorways, concessions, energy and construction. Vinci operates in about 100 countries.
Let's now look at the strategic partnerships that the Atlantia Group has set up over the past few years.
First of all, in 2018, the Italian group became the main shareholder of the Getlink group by buying 15.5% of the capital of the former Eurotunnel with an operation of almost one billion euros. Previously, the British group TCI had become the largest shareholder of this company with 11.08% of the capital. This announcement led to a significant drop in Getlink's share price. With this partnership operation, the Atlantia group has taken 15.49% of the capital of this company but has also obtained 26.66% of the voting rights at a price of €12.40 per share through the acquisition of Aero 1 Global & International, which is 100% controlled by funds managed by Goldman Sachs Infrastructure Partners and to whom this stake belonged.
Another strategic merger that almost took place in 2016 but was finally aborted is that of Atlantia with the Italian airline Alitalia, then in great financial difficulty. Indeed, let us recall that this company was then placed under extraordinary administration for two years and was therefore looking for partners who could save it. The Atlantia group was then spotted by Ferrovie dello Stato in charge of the round table, as an ideal partner. It was then a question of Atlantia buying 30 to 40% of Alitalia's capital for an amount of nearly 400 million euros. Previously, the group had already contributed to the recapitalisation of this company in 2008 and 2017. Atlantia had, on several occasions, refused to get involved in the recovery plan of this company before changing its position. Finally, a few weeks later, Atlantia will withdraw from the consortium planned for the rescue of this group and this partnership will therefore not materialize.
Like any good trader, you may have selected Atlantica stock for a long-term investment strategy. But for this strategy to be successful, you must of course choose to speculate on the right underlying trend in this asset. Also, you need to be able to determine whether the price of this stock is more likely to move up or down based on different indices. Among the most telling elements, the expected profitability of the company in the months and years to come is undoubtedly crucial. This is why it is necessary to know perfectly the strong and weak points of this group and to compare them in order to know if it is able to face its future in a serene way. We will start with an in-depth study of the strengths of the Atlantia group.
Firstly, the size and importance of this group among companies in the same sector of activity is undoubtedly a major advantage. Indeed, let's recall that the Atlantia group is at the head of no less than 5000 km of toll motorways in Italy and in other countries. The group is also particularly well developed in other countries with Brazil, Chile, India and Poland. Its sources of income are therefore well diversified from a geographical point of view and Atlantia is well protected against the risk linked to a single geographical sector.
The investment capacity of the Atlantia Group is of course another strong point of this group. Atlantia is currently the most invested company in Europe. It invests a lot of money every year in order to develop its activities and to create new sources of profit.
Atlantia's global positioning is also interesting. Indeed, the Italian group is nothing less than the international leader in the free-flow toll sector. This says a lot about the interest that this stock can arouse in the eyes of stock market investors. Atlantia is also an international leader in the design and development of motorways, but also in other products such as safety technology and energy saving. It therefore has a certain lead over its competitors and a qualitative and innovative image.
Finally, the strong presence of the Atlantia Group in the field of industry can also be appreciated. By not focusing solely on its core business, Atlantia also protects itself against the risk of losses in one and the same sector by creating additional sources of income.
In the previous paragraph, we reviewed the various strengths of the Atlantia Group, which, as you have seen, are very numerous. It is indeed interesting to bet more on an upward evolution of the share price rather than on a downward one. However, speculation on the stock market is not an exact science, not to mention that Atlantia does not have only advantages. Indeed, if the defects and weak points of this group are less numerous than its qualities, they are not less important to take into account if you wish to take into account all the variables during your analyses. We propose you to discover here the two main weaknesses of the Atlantia company.
The first negative point concerning the model and the economic health of the Atlantia group concerns the group's customer base. Indeed, when one compares the level of this clientele to that of the main competitors, one realizes that it remains relatively limited. Atlantia remains dependent on a few major clients and seems to have difficulties in recruiting new clients from its competitors.
Finally, despite the fact that the group is trying to make efforts to carry out a variety of activities, the diversity of its range of products and services remains low compared to other big names in this sector. As a result, some customers prefer to turn to the competition in order to find a complete answer to all their needs.
As you have seen for yourself, even if these negative elements are only very few, they can have an undeniable influence on analysts' and therefore investors' forecasts and indirectly weigh on the evolution of the share price on the stock market. It is thus very important to study carefully these elements before any decision is taken if you wish that your strategy is coherent and thus limit the risks of loss by being too enthusiastic.
In recent years, shares of Atlantia Group have been trending downwards on an underlying basis. Specifically, for 2019, this stock's performance has been negative with a 36.10% drop in its value. As for its longer-term trend, we can see that its price has recorded a total decline of 38.42% over the past five years. You can follow its performance with an online historical stock chart.
The Atlantia Group comprises a number of companies and subsidiaries, including SPEA Engineering S.p.A., Pavimental S.p.A., Essediesse, AD Moving and Port Mobility Spa. The group also has interests in Stalexport SA in Poland, Costanera Norte in Chile, Autostrade International of Virginia O&M in the USA and Azzura in France. The group also owns two other companies whose activities are related to the motorway sector, namely Infoblu S.p.A. and TowerCo.
Atlantia is currently the leading European concessionaire for the construction and operation of toll motorways and mobility services. In the Italian market alone, the group has more than 4 million passengers on its network every day, which is 8% of the population. Its motorway network covers more than 3,408 km.
