Annual Report • Sep 10, 2021
Annual Report
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Registered office in Rome, via Leonida Bissolati No. 76 Share Capital Euro 90,964,212 fully paid-in Rome (RM) Companies Registration Office No.: 09105940960
| HIGHLIGHTS | 4 |
|---|---|
| LETTER TO THE SHAREHOLDERS | 5 |
| DIRECTORS' REPORT | 7 |
| The Avio Group | 8 |
| Profile | 9 |
| Corporate Boards and Committees | 11 |
| Recent History | 12 |
| Business divisions | 14 |
| Group structure and international presence | 14 |
| Strategy | 15 |
| Shareholders | 16 |
| H1 2021 | 17 |
| Significant events | 18 |
| Market performance and operations | 22 |
| Group operating performance and | |
| financial and equity position | 24 |
| Research and development | 33 |
| Human Resources | 37 |
| Communication and Social Responsibility | 40 |
| Group principal risks and uncertainties | 42 |
| Subsequent events to the period-end | 46 |
| Outlook | 47 |
| Transactions with holding companies, subsidiaries, associates, | |
| joint ventures and investees | 48 |
| Other information | 48 |
| Corporate Governance | 48 |
| CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED HALF-YEAR FINANCIAL STATEMENTS | |
| AT JUNE 30, 2021 | 50 |
| Consolidated Balance Sheet | 51 |
| Consolidated Income Statement | 53 |
| Consolidated Comprehensive Income Statement | 54 |
| Statement of changes in Consolidated Equity | 55 |
| Consolidated Cash Flow Statement | 56 |
| Notes to the Half-Year Condensed Consolidated | |
| Financial Statements at June 30, 2021 | 57 |
| ▪ | General information | 57 |
|---|---|---|
| ▪ | Significant accounting policies | 57 |
| ▪ | Composition, comment and changes of | |
| the main accounts and other information | 63 | |
| ▪ | Disclosure by operating and regional segment | 103 |
| ▪ | Commitments and risks | 104 |
| ▪ | Financial instruments and risk management policies | 114 |
| ▪ | Related party transactions | 116 |
| ▪ | List of Group companies at June 30, 2021 | 121 |
| ▪ | Information on public grants | |
| as per Article 1, paragraphs 125‐129, of Law No. 124/2017 | 122 | |
| ▪ | Subsequent events to the period-end | 124 |
| Auditors' Report on the Condensed Consolidated | ||
| Half-Year Report at June 30, 2021 | 126 | |
| Declaration of the Executive Responsible and Corporate Boards | 127 | |
Net revenues Euro 127.7 million (-23.9% on H1 2020)
Reported: Euro 8.1 million (-52.3% on H1 2020) Adjusted: Euro 10.5 million (-47.3% on 2020)
Reported: loss of Euro 2.4 million (profit of Euro 8.5 million in H1 2020) Adjusted: Euro 0 million (profit of Euro 11.5 million in H1 2020)
Profit before taxes loss of Euro 2.5 million (profit of Euro 8.2 million in H1 2020)
Net Profit loss of Euro 2.4 million (profit of Euro 8.4 million in H1 2020)
Net cash position Euro 36.6 million (cash of Euro 62.6 million at December 31, 2020)
Euro 14.8 million (11.3 in H1 2020)
Backlog Euro 835.0 million at June 30, 2021 (Euro 735.9 million at December 31, 2020)
net costs of Euro 38.1 million incurred in H1 2021, equal to 29.8% of net revenues for H1 2021 (net costs of Euro 58.0 million incurred in H1 2020, equal to 34.5% of net revenues for H1 2020)
944 at June 30, 2021 (950 at December 31, 2020)
Dear Shareholders
Company operations over the first six months featured the return to flight of the Vega launcher, as we worked in accordance with the recommendations issued by the Independent Commission of Inquiry chaired by ESA and Arianespace following the anomaly on the VV17 mission of November 2020.
The Company's key priority for the initial four months was the implementation of the recommendations, as evidenced by the significant commitment of resources and requiring the postponement of certain development activities scheduled for the future Vega C and Vega E launcher evolutions.
This major push saw the successful return to flight of the Vega launcher with the VV18 mission of April 29, 2021, which put into sun-synchronous orbit the French Pléiades Neo 3 satellite, together with a number of rideshare satellites.
Alongside these corrective actions, the Company also began to introduce new technologies focused on industrialisation 4.0 processes.
Avio also reorganised during the period production activities for subsequent Vega launches according to the new flight plan drawn up by Arianespace which schedules for 2021 - in addition to the VV18 mission - two further Vega flights. The first was the VV19 mission, successfully executed on August 17 and putting into orbit the Pléiades Neo 4 satellite, the second satellite of the Pléiades Neo constellation, together with 4 rideshare microsatellites. This second success again highlighted the sterling work carried out by Avio to improve the reliability, competitivity and versatility of the Vega launcher, confirming its capacity to put into orbit groups of rideshare satellites together with a main payload, in addition to the availability of the new SSMS payload adapter, tested successfully on the VV16 mission.
The first Ariane 5 launch of the year took place at the end of July with flight VA254 which successfully placed a payload of 2 satellites into geostationary orbit.
The manufacturing of the motor casings for the P120C motor also continued;
the motor qualification operations continued simultaneously, with completion on the qualification of the igniter scheduled for the end of September.
Development activities on the Vega C and Vega E resumed in a sustained manner in the final two months of the period and shall pick up further in the second half of the year, with the goal of a Vega C qualification launch in the first quarter of 2022 and the first ignition of the new Mira M10 motor of the third cryogenic stage of the Vega-E launcher in December at the SPTF test facilities in Sardinia, currently in the final commissioning phase.
The development of the Space Rider system also began in the period, composed of an "Avum Orbital module" service module and a "Re-entry Module" designed to be launched with Vega-C, ensuring an orbital life for the payload of approx. 6 months before returning to land.
The COVID-19 pandemic, with a global impact in 2020, continued in the period to create difficulties and slow certain Company operations. Nevertheless, given our strategic importance for the national economy, production activities were allowed to continue in Italy following the authorisation issued by the prefecture in March 2020, despite the extremely difficult situation.
Against this backdrop, the Group has continued its efforts to tackle the emergency, adopting all relative government measures and necessary national and international protocols to ensure maximum safety levels for our employees, while also protecting production levels and industrial operations.
The order portfolio in the period reached Euro 835 million, with a net increase of approx. Euro 100 million on the end of 2020, thanks to new orders worth Euro 227 million, mainly the Vega E contract for development activities until 2024 and, in terms of practical propulsion, an additional three tranches of the production contract for the Aster Booster to cover approx. ten years of production.
The operating-financial results for the period slowed on the first half of the previous year, mainly due to Company's extensive engagement - particularly over the initial four months of the year - in implementing the recommendations of the Independent Commission of Inquiry chaired by ESA and Arianespace for the Vega return to flight. The execution of these extraordinary activities required the postponement of a number of development activities and thus the realisation of the revenues and margins expected in the period for the future Vega C and Vega E launcher evolutions, as outlined at the beginning of this letter, against the backdrop of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.
Net revenues therefore totalled Euro 127.7 million, down Euro 40.2 million (-24%) on the first half of the previous year, with reported EBITDA of Euro 8.1 million, contracting Euro 8.9 million (-52%) and adjusted EBITDA of Euro 10.5 million, decreasing Euro 9.4 million (-47%).
Financial management at June 30, 2021 reports a solid cash position of Euro 36.6 million, despite the seasonality effect (+Euro 9.7 million, +36% on June 30, 2020) and the significant level of Capex (Euro 15.3 million, compared to Euro 12.3 million in H1 2020), together with the distribution of dividends of Euro 7.3 million, as decided by the Shareholders' Meeting approving the 2020 Annual Accounts.
Finally, the operating-financial forecasts for 2021 were drawn up, also taking into account the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the short term in fact, operations are expected to a certain extent to be again impacted both by the continuation of the containment and restriction measures directly relating to COVID-19 adopted by the various governmental authorities in Europe and the rest of the world and the indirect consequences of these measures, including possible delays or slowdowns to supply chain operators and sub-contractors.
We again in this period had to deal with extraordinary events, but Avio once again - thanks to the passion, elevated standards and tenacity of its employees - has demonstrated enduring resilience, delivering Vega's successful return to flight. We will continue to doggedly strive to achieve the Company's growth objectives for the coming years, consolidating the substantial production orders and the many planned development activities, also within the broader scope of the recovery plan.
The significant growth for private capital investment in Space Ventures through SPAC's was again a feature of the first half of 2021, particularly in the US market, where significant assessments are being made on the basis of the innovative projects in the pipeline for the coming years. This confirms the sector's potential, and as such, we will continue to support the Group's future growth and to increase Avio's value for all of our stakeholders, with a sense of determination and confidence based on the resilient foundation of the business and technologically innovative projects.
Giulio Ranzo Chief Executive Officer and General Manager Avio S.p.A.
The Avio Group (hereafter in this Directors' Report also "Avio" or the "Group") is an aerospace sector global leader. The experience and know-how built up over more than 50 years lies behind Avio's embodiment of excellence in terms of launch systems, solid, liquid and cryogenic propulsion and military systems propulsion.
The Group directly employs in Italy and overseas approx. 1,000 highly-qualified personnel at the main Colleferro facilities on the outskirts of Rome and at other locations in Campania, Piedmont and Sardinia. Additional operating sites are located overseas (in France and French Guyana).
The Group is currently involved in the Launch Systems and space propulsion sector, particularly with regards to the design, development, production and integration of:
The current Launch Systems with Avio components are:
Regarding tactical missiles, Avio participates in the major national and international programs. These include:
In the field of satellite propulsion, Avio has developed and supplied the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) with propulsion subsystems for the launching and control of several satellites, including the latest SICRAL, Small GEO and EDRS-C satellites. Avio is currently participating in the development and qualification of the propulsion systems of the Hera satellite and of the Mars Sample Return mission, for the Orbit Insertion Module and for the Return Module.
The Group operates in the following business lines:
Ariane is a space program for ESA-sponsored GEO missions, in which Ariane Group ("AG") is the prime contractor and Avio operates as a subcontractor for the production of the P230 solid propulsion boosters and the liquid oxygen turbo pump (LOX) for the Vulcain 2 engine. Avio is also the subcontractor for the next-generation Ariane 6 launcher scheduled for 2022, for which Avio, through its subsidiary Europropulsion, is developing and will supply (i) the solid propellant P120C engine, (ii) the liquid oxygen turbopump for the Vulcain 2 engine and (iii) the liquid oxygen turbopump for the Vinci engine.
Vega is a space program for LEO missions, whose development has been funded by the ESA, with mainly Italian funding, and for which the Group is the prime contractor for the production and integration of components for the entire launcher and for the production of the solid propulsion engines P80, Zefiro 23 and Zefiro 9 and of the AVUM liquid propulsion module. The Group also plays the role of the ESA's prime contractor for the development of the new generation of Vega Consolidated (Vega-C) and Vega Evolution (Vega-E) launchers, scheduled for the end of 2021 and the end of 2025 respectively. The Group is responsible for the development and production of these entire launchers, in addition to (i) the development of the solid propulsion engine P120 C (first stage to replace the current P80), which is constructed in synergy with the Ariane program 6), (ii) the Z40 solid propellant engine (second stage to replace the current Z23) and (iii) an oxygen-methane liquid engine for the upper Vega-E stage.
Avio is responsible for the design and production of the following products:
Regarding development programs:
With net revenues in the first half of 2021 of Euro 127.7 million and Reported EBITDA of Euro 8.1 million, the Group currently occupies a leading position in the Italian and European space industry, substantially supported by its high degree of competitivity - drawing over 98.6% of its revenues from overseas.
The highly technological content of Avio's operations has required research and development spend - for the portion principally commissioned by the ESA, ASI and Member State ministries - accounting for 29.8% of net revenues in H1 2021. These activities were carried out both in-house and through sub-contractors and a network of laboratories and partnerships with some of the leading domestic and international universities and research centres.
Board of Directors
On May 6, 2020, the Shareholder's Meeting appointed the new Board of Directors of the parent company Avio S.p.A., which in turn, on May 7, 2020, decided upon the internal appointments and the granting of the powers required to complete company operations.
The term of office of the new Board of Directors is three years, concluding with approval of the 2022 Annual Accounts.
| Monica Auteri | Independent Director (a) |
|---|---|
| Raffaele Cappiello | Independent Director (b) |
| Letizia Colucci | Director (b) |
| Giovanni Gorno Tempini | Independent Director (a) (d) |
| Donatella Isaia | Independent Director (a) |
| Roberto Italia | Chairman (c) (d) |
| Stefano Pareglio1 | Independent Director (c) |
| Luigi Pasquali | Director (d) |
| Elena Pisonero | Independent Director (c) |
| Giulio Ranzo | Chief Executive Officer (d) |
| Donatella Sciuto | Independent Director (b) _____________ |
On May 6, 2020, the Shareholders' Meeting of the parent company Avio S.p.A. appointed its new Board of Statutory Auditors, whose term of office is three years, concluding with the approval of the 2022 Annual Accounts.
_______________________________________________________________________________
| Vito Di Battista | Chairman |
|---|---|
| Mario Matteo Busso | Statutory Auditor |
| Michela Zeme | Statutory Auditor |
| Roberto Cassader | Alternate Auditor |
| Sara Fornasiero | Alternate Auditor |
On May 7, 2020, the Board of Directors of the parent company Avio S.p.A. resolved to confirm its new Supervisory Board, whose term of office is three years, concluding with the approval of the 2022 Annual Accounts.
Alessandro De Nicola Chairperson Giorgio Martellino Member Raoul Vitulo Member
Deloitte & Touche S.p.A. (2017-2025)
1 Stefano Pareglio submitted his resignation from his role as member of the board and of the Sustainability Committee, effective August 23, 2021, due to incompatibilities with certain new professional commitments.
The FIAT Group, operating since the early 1900's in the aviation sector, acquired in 1994 BPD Difesa e Spazio, a company founded in 1912 and growing to over 4,000 staff, focused on munitions development and production for Italian and foreign militaries.
In 2000, adding to its traditional aeronautical and aerospace activities, the Group, in collaboration with the Italian Space Agency (ASI), established ELV S.p.A. (held 70%) for the complete development and design of a new launcher. In this role, under the auspices of the European Space Agency (ESA), the Group assumed the role of lead contractor for the European launcher VEGA.
The Group was acquired by BCV Investments, owned by the private equity fund Cinven (81%), Finmeccanica Group (14%, now Leonardo Group) and other investors (5%).
In February, the European space launch system named VEGA, designed and engineered by Avio, was approved.
In December, Avio announced the signing of an agreement for the sale of its aeronautical division to General Electric.
In May, Avio's new VEGA launcher successfully completed its first commercial flight. On August 1, 2013, Avio sold GE Avio S.r.l., which operated its aeronautic division, to General Electric.
In December, the European Space Agency Ministerial Conference of Member States decided to finance the VEGA launcher development program until its completion, including a first rocket stage (the P120 C) to be shared with the forthcoming Ariane 6 launcher, also fully financed.
The outcome of the Ministerial Conference of ESA countries, held the previous December 2014, led in August 2015 to the signing of major development contracts for the Vega-C and Ariane 6 launchers. Avio's key role was recognized thanks to its participation in the development program for Vega-C and Ariane 6's shared rocket stage, the P120, and its lead systems engineering role in the VECEP program for the development of the Vega-C launcher.
For the first time in the history of the Kourou Space Centre as many as 12 launches were made in one year, including 6 involving Ariane and 3 for Vega.
In the fourth quarter of 2016, the operation for the acquisition and listing of the Avio Group by Space2 S.p.A., an Italian SPAC listed on the MIV market/SIV segment of Borsa Italiana S.p.A., was initiated.
This operation was completed on March 31, 2017 with the acquisition by Space2, Leonardo S.p.A. and In Orbit S.p.A. (a company formed by a number of Avio managers) of an 85.68% holding in Avio. The remaining investment was already held by Leonardo. On the same date, CONSOB authorised publication of the listing prospectus for ordinary Space2 post-merger with Avio shares on the Italian Stock Exchange. The merger by incorporation with Space2 was thereafter effectively executed on April 10, 2017.
Also on April 10, 2017, Space2 post-merger with Avio, maintaining the name "Avio S.p.A.", was listed on the Italian Stock Exchange's STAR segment.
As part of the process initiated by European Space Agency (ESA) member states for new governance of the European launchers sector, in order to transfer to the prime contractors (Ariane Group for Ariane 6 and Avio for Vega-C) the responsibility for commercial exploitation of the new products and the associated risks, and following completion of the accompanying flights for Vega launcher testing, the shareholders of ELV S.p.A. (held 70% by Avio S.p.A. and 30% by ASI) reorganised operations, with development, production and distribution of launchers carried out by the industrial shareholder Avio, while ELV S.p.A. concentrates on the research and development of new technologies and on aviation testing.
Therefore, on March 1, 2018, the subsidiary ELV S.p.A. transferred to Avio S.p.A. the launchers development, production and distribution business unit. Following this reorganisation, the subsidiary ELV S.p.A. took from May 9, 2018 the new name of Spacelab S.p.A., focusing on the research and development of new technologies and space transport product testing.
On August 19, the company Avio France S.A.S., with registered office in Paris and wholly-owned by Avio S.p.A., was incorporated. Its corporate scope is to undertake engineering activities to study and design space transport systems and subsystems.
Core operations: design, development and production of solid and liquid propellant propulsion systems for space launchers; design, development and production of solid propellant propulsion systems for tactical missiles; development, integration and supply of complete light space launchers (VEGA); research and development of new low environmental impact propulsion systems and of satellite tracking control motors.
Main programmes: Ariane, VEGA, Aster, CAMM-ER
Main clients: Arianespace, ESA (European Space Agency), ArianeGroup (previously Airbus Safran Launchers), ASI (Italian Space Agency) and MBDA
The Avio Group's ownership structure is reported below:
* indicates that the company is in voluntary liquidation. No financial significant commitments are expected for the Avio Group related to the liquidation.
The Group has production facilities in Italy, primarily in Colleferro (Rome) and Villaputzo (Cagliari), and in France, where the joint venture Europropulsion S.A. is based. There is also a research lab in Airola (Benevento), Italy. In Kourou, French Guyana, there is the European spaceport where loading and integration of the Ariane 5 solid-propellant booster segments, as well as integration of the VEGA launcher, take place.
The company's strategy in the current decade is mainly orientated by
These interests mean that Avio is among the very small number of companies worldwide operating in the field of space access.
In the area of Development Activities, in accordance with the outcomes of the 2014, 2016 and 2019 Ministerial Conferences, which confirmed the European strategy for developing its launchers (from Vega to Vega C and Ariane 5 to Ariane 62/64), and pursuant to contracts entered into in 2015, 2017, 2020 and the first half of 2021, Avio is working on:
Regarding operations, the company:
Loading Stations). This consolidates its ground activities role, i.e. mechanical, electrical and hydraulic management activities at the Kourou launch base, which was assumed in 2016 and extended its scope of expertise.
In the military sector, the company is assessing the opportunity of offering technological solutions (with or without the intermediary of MBDA) to the Italian armed forces, within the scope of national and European initiatives.
At June 30, 2021, the share capital of Avio S.p.A. of Euro 90,964,212.90 comprised 26,359,346 ordinary shares, of which:
In addition, Space Holding S.p.A., the promoter of the business combination, holds 800,000 sponsor warrants, exercisable within 10 years from the effective merger date of April 10, 2017, on the condition that Avio S.p.A. share price reaches Euro 13.00, with a conversion ratio with Avio S.p.A. post-merger shares of 1 against the payment of an exercise price of Euro 13.00.
At the effective merger date (April 10, 2017, the first trading day of the Avio S.p.A. share on the MTA), the condition for the exercise of the Sponsor Warrants was satisfied. At June 30, 2021, no exercise requests have been received from holders.
At June 30, 2021, on the basis of the communications received as per Article 120 of the CFA and the information available to the company, the Avio S.p.A. shareholder structure was as follows:
| Shareholder | % share capital |
|---|---|
| Leonardo S.p.A. | 29.63% |
| Space Holding S.p.A. | 4.84% |
| In Orbit S.p.A. | 4.07% |
| Delfin S.a.r.l. | 3.79% |
| Servizi Cgn S.r.l. | 3.02% |
| Treasury shares | 2.55% |
| Remaining MTA free float |
52.10% |
| Total | 100.00% |
Following the failure of Vega flight VV17, in November 2020, the Commission of Inquiry, chaired by ESA and Arianespace on January 21, 2021 identified the cause of the premature mission conclusion and prescribed a series of corrective actions to be implemented before resuming flight activities. Avio has implemented all of the corrective actions defined by the Commission of Inquiry within the specified timeframe and has been authorised for return to flight.
On April 29, 2021, with flight VV18, the Vega launcher successfully put the French satellite Pléiades Neo 3 in sun-synchronous orbit along with a number of rideshare satellites.
The mission put into perfect orbit the latest generation French satellite Pléiades Neo 3, constructed by Airbus Defence and Space, along with 5 other microsatellites, including the Norwegian Norsat 3 and 4 CubeSats for operators Eutelsat, NanoAvionics/Aurora Insight, and Spire, using a module derived from the SSMS adaptor that had already been validated for the VV16 mission in September 2020. The satellites have various applications, including Earth observation, the monitoring of maritime routes, telecommunications and technology.
The Vega launcher has confirmed its ability to put into orbit groups of rideshare satellites alongside a primary payload. This, together with the new SSMS payload adaptor that was successfully tested during flight VV16, increases the versatility of Vega in the competitive microsatellite market and provides clients with a wider range of launch opportunities.
In addition to the investigation efforts and implementation of the corrective actions, which represented costs during the period, Avio has also launched other projects and activities within the broader Industry 4.0 investment project.
On the basis of the contractual provisions and the agreements between the Company and Arianespace, no additional charges are considered to have arisen for the company from the failure of the VV17 mission, beyond those reported in the contract work in progress section of these financial statements.
Simultaneously with the implementation of the corrective actions to restore the reliability of the Vega launch system, Avio reorganized the production activities of the subsequent launchers according to the new flight manifest defined by Arianespace, which provides, following flight VV18, for two other Vega flights, respectively, the VV19 flight, held on August 17, 2021 (see the "Subsequent events to the period end" section) and the VV20 flight planned for the fourth quarter of 2021, before the qualification flight of the Vega C launcher scheduled for the first quarter of 2022
Production activities were undertaken implementing the corrective actions indicated by the Commission of Inquiry, in particular as regards a clearer and more comprehensive re-issuing of integration procedures and a more complete product control plan.
During the first two months of the year, operations focused on the analysis by ESA of the Data Package presented at the end of 2020 in relation to Ground Qualification Review Part 1. The ESA report identified several aspects to be consolidated before moving on to Part 2 of the review, as well as requiring an implementation plan, also for the VEGA-C launcher, of the prescriptions issued by the Commission of Inquiry for VV17.
The aspects to be consolidated, on which Avio's activity in the following months was focused, were:
the safety aspects of the flight, particularly the fragmentation of the launcher following the activation of the neutralization system;
the performances of the SSO missions;
The plan for the implementation of VV17 post-failure prescriptions for the Vega-C launcher concerns:
Verification of the implementation of these actions is expected to take place by the end of July 2021 as part of a Project Key Point with ESA and the Commission of Inquiry.
The adaptation of the launch base to the needs of Vega-C continued during the stoppage in flight activities with the transfer of the launcher's new control desk to Kourou.
As the latest version of the Vega launcher, Vega-C will allow a 60% increase in performance, increasing market access for this launcher of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, a substantial part of which can be launched in multiple payloads.
The 1st flight of the Vega-C launcher is expected in the first quarter of 2022.
The development activities of the Vega-E launcher mainly concerned the manufacturing of the components for the DM1 prototype of the M10 motor, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2021 and made available for the LRE bench test.
The M10 is a cryogenic liquid (oxygen and methane) propulsion motor intended for the 3rd stage of the Vega-E launcher, replacing the Z9 solid propulsion motor and the LPS propulsion module of the 4th stage.
Simultaneously, research continued to refine the configuration of the 2nd prototype of the M10 motor, whose test is expected in 2022, and whose design must be completed by September 2021 in order to start manufacturing.
The system activities were focused on the definition of the components of the 3rd stage (tanks and valves) and the performance of the launcher.
Vega-E, as the evolution of Vega-C, will allow for a further 20% increase in the launcher's performance, increasing its competitiveness thanks to the better exploitation of load capacity for multiple satellite launches.
The 1st flight of the Vega-E launcher is currently scheduled for 2026.
The construction activities of the LRE liquid motor test bench, on which the Vega-E M10 motor will be tested, have been completed, and the bench is in the commissioning phase.
The LRE bench is located at the Space Propulsion Test Facility (SPTF), within an area granted for use by Avio at the Salto di Quirra firing range in Sardinia.
The final phase of the development of the Space Rider System began in January 2021, following the signing of the contract for its development and qualification in December 2020. The Space Rider System is composed of an AVUM (Attitude & Vernier Upper Module) Orbital Module, denominated AOM, and a re-entry module, denominated RM, whose development was assigned by ESA to two prime contractors, Avio and TAS-I. The modules, designed to be launched with Vega-C, ensure an orbital life for the payload of approximately 6 months before returning to land on the ground.
The activities of the first half of the year concerned the definition and contracting of the supply chain, and the follow-on of the co-producers.
In the first half of 2021, no flights of the Ariane 5 launcher took place. Flight VA254 was successfully undertaken on July 30, with a payload of 2 satellites (Star One D2, EUTELSAT QUANTUM) to be placed in GTO orbit.
Regarding the P120C SRM programme for Ariane 6, manufacturing continued for the motor casings already manufactured for the qualification flight in 2020 and destined for use in commercial flights. Simultaneously, qualification activities of the P120C motor continued with the achievement of qualification status for all of its main components (nozzle, casing, loaded casing), with the exception of the igniter, which is expected to be qualified at the end of September. Step 2 of the Ground Qualification Review of the SRM motor was also undertaken and completed. The qualification of the P120C motor for Ariane 6 is then expected in October 2021, following the qualification of the igniter.
Regarding cryogenic propulsion, for integration purposes, liquid oxygen turbopumps were produced for Ariane 6 (Vinci and Vulcain) and Ariane 5 (Vulcain), with, however, delays in customer withdrawals and production plans as a direct consequence mainly of the delay to the Ariane 6 programme.
During the period, production and delivery of Aster 30 Boosters and of Marte Sustainers continued as per the production plan. Refurbishment activities of the Aspide motor have also begun.
Activities relating to the development of the CAMM-ER motor continued. In particular, the qualification programme and accelerated ageing, to verify mid and end-of-life performance, are now underway.
Finally, PRIBES development activities commenced with a suborbital target pre-project to verify interception by anti-missile systems.
Activities for the development and manufacturing of the Chemical Propulsion System (CPS) for the Hera probe began. The probe is set to be launched at the end of 2024, as part of a joint NASA-ESA project to validate models for the deflection of asteroids at risk of impact with the Earth.
Regarding Ariane 5 and P120 production activities, the following were agreed:
Given the delay in the Ariane 6 launcher project, negotiations are underway with the counterparties regarding the production schedules for the P120C motor.
Regarding Vega production, supplemental orders were received for the production of specific structures dedicated to specific launches within the scope of batch 3.
Regarding Vega development activities, the following were established:
With reference to the satellite propulsion operations:
Finally, regarding the tactical sector, three additional tranches of an Aster Booster production contract were acquired, covering approximately ten years of production.
On February 25, 2021 the Tax Agency refunded the subsidiary Secosvim S.r.l. Euro 854 thousand, inclusive of interest of Euro 31 thousand relating to 2010 and on March 9, 2021 the Tax Agency refunded the Company Euro 7,879 thousand, inclusive of interest of Euro 39 thousand relating to 2018.
By private agreement on June 29, 2021, between Avio S.p.A. and the subsidiary Spacelab S.p.A., in which the Italian Space Agency holds a 30% stake, the price adjustment was set for the acquisition of the business unit related to the development, production, and commercialisation of launchers by Spacelab S.p.A. to Avio S.p.A., the original agreement for which was signed on March 1, 2018.
This agreement will include a possible adjustment to the amount paid for the acquisition of the business unit to be determined by the parties (i.e. Avio S.p.A. and Spacelab S.p.A.) in consideration of the fact that, at the date on which the agreement for the acquisition of the business unit was signed, the analysis was still being conducted, with the help of tax consultants, concerning the potential expected benefits of the purchase of the business unit and looking to the possibility that applicable legislation could be subject to relevant changes and interpretations.
Given that legislation concerning the tax credit for research and development has now been established and an agreement reached between the parties, with this private agreement it was possible to adjust the price set by the parties, by mutual agreement, to Euro 8.5 million and to financially settle said price.
For further information, reference should be made to the "Subsequent events" section of the Directors' Report and to the section "3.30 Other current liabilities" of the Explanatory Notes.
In early 2021 many countries maintained limitations or suspensions of certain commercial activities or adopted travel restrictions and quarantine measures pending the completion of mass vaccinations.
For the associated risks, see the section "Principal risks and uncertainties to which the Group is exposed".
In the first half of 2021, 62 orbital launches were carried out (compared with 45 in the same period of 2020), 3 of which reported a failure. Globally, these 62 launches took 1308 satellites into orbit, that is more in those 6 months than in all of 2020 (1275 launched). This new record was possible thanks to the continuation, in the first 6 months of 2021, of the massive deployment of Space X's Starlink satellite internet access constellation (785 satellites, equalling a mass of 204 tonnes, in 12 dedicated Falcon 9 launches), as well as the launches of small satellites via Rideshare. The transported mass was 389 tonnes (compared to 266 tonnes in the first six months of 2020), which suggests that, by the end of 2021, a new record is likely for the total mass transported into orbit (current record set in 2020 with 542 tonnes).
2021's half-year results thus confirm that the launch sector is undergoing strong growth, due -as already highlighted from 2019 onwards - to the increasing deployment of low-orbit satellite constellations (particularly those of Space X's Starlink, but also of OneWeb, O3B and other minor players).
With particular regard to these orbits, in particular, there continues to be strong growth in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) missions, the main target segment of Vega, and a simultaneous decrease in GTO/GEO missions, the main target segment of Ariane: 43 launches in LEO (264 tonnes) versus 7 launches in GTO/GEO (28 tonnes). The trend recorded for the first time in 2020, with the mass transported to LEO exceeding that to GTO/GEO), is therefore confirmed.
In terms of the types of satellites, it is also useful to underline that, of the 1,308 satellites put into orbit, approximately 1259 were SmallSats (i.e. with a mass <500 kg), testifying to the fact that this technology, in growth since 2013, has, by now, established itself on the application market offering services such as broadband internet, Earth observation, IoT, technology demonstrations, and so on. Except for the Starlink constellation (satellites produced, launched and operated by Space X, without the possibility of open competition, and also subsidized by the FCC with more than USD 900 M), missions remain largely institutional (35 governmental civil/military launches vs. 7 commercial launches), testifying to the vital importance of public funds to this sector.
As for applications, these are mainly in the perimeter of telecommunications services, such as broadband internet, mobile telephony and the Internet of Things, but also in the field of earth observation and navigation.
Finally, the analysis of the leading countries in the sector reports 27 launches for the USA (272 tonnes), 19 for China (only 77 tonnes, indicating a very low filling factor of the launchers due to the fact that the launches are exclusively governmental), 7 for Russia, and 4 for Europe.
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic emerging initially in 2020, which led to the shut-down or slowdown of the activities of various manufacturing plants for both satellites and launchers, as well as the slowdown of activities at launch bases around the world), continued to particularly impact India (2 launches in 2020, 1 in H1 2021, against historically 5-7 launches per year).
Forecasts for this decade and the next (produced by sector consulting firms) indicate a strong growth in transported mass, with a CAGR of 5% from 2030 to 2020, and 10% from 2040 to 2030. This growth is expected to occur above all in LEO orbits (deployment and replenishment of constellations, infrastructures and space logistics), but also in escape orbits (the Moon, Mars, exploration and colonization operations), not only at institutional but also, and above all, commercial expense. Globally, it is estimated that revenues generated by the launch segment, equal to approximately USD 7.5 B in 2020, will rise to USD 11 B in 2030 (CAGR=4%) and USD 18 B in 2040 (CAGR=5%), 50% of which pertaining to the North American market.
The first six months of 2021 confirmed the global trend of recent years in which few nations have had a launch service offer capable of responding not only to the steadfast institutional market, but also to the growing commercial market. These nations were the USA, Russia and China, covering 75% of launches, and, to a lesser extent, Europe, India and Japan (with the latter having no launches in 2021). Among emerging countries in this sector, New Zealand (thanks to its presence on the US market) has so far carried out 20 launches of its Electron Mini Launcher, developed and operated by Rocket Lab.
In the first 6 months of 2021, there were no missions of new launchers, nor missions carried out with new versions of existing launchers. The most used 'legacy' launchers continue to be Falcon 9 (20 launches), CZ (18 launches), in its various versions, and Soyuz (used by both Russia and Europe, 10 launches).
8 missions were operated by Mini Launchers, with, in addition to Electron (3 launches, 1 failure), 2 launches of LauncherOne, operated by Virgin Galactic, which appears to be establishing itself in this market segment. 3 missions (Falcon 9, Soyuz 2.1 and CZ-6) were carried out via Rideshare (one of the markets operated by Vega with SSMS), which is becoming an ever more popular launch method.
The first Coronavirus case was reported at the end of 2019 and by January 2020 the city of Wuhan was put under total lockdown. That same month, the WHO declared a state of emergency and in February the financial markets saw their biggest drop in a single week since the financial crisis of 2008.
Despite the fact that the pandemic remains ongoing around the world, and in Europe and the United States in particular, and with the vaccine roll-out not beginning until late 2020 and immunisations not reaching significant levels until late Spring 2021, the march of the New Space Economy continues at a rapid pace.
As the global economy moves towards remote operations, the most innovative enterprises are relying on a range of space technologies such as GPS, Geospatial Intelligence, the Internet of Things and Telecommunications and internet via satellite to gain competitive advantages. The expectation is that the space economy will play an increasingly central role in the post-COVID world.
In 2020, the companies active in the space industry raised more than USD 25 billion in new private investment and have approached USD 14.9 billion in new investment in the first 6 months of 2021 (source: Space Capital). To these considerable figures we can also add the public listing (particularly on the New York NASDAQ) of new industry players and recent start-ups, which have attracted new capital as special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), including companies such as Rocketlab, Astra, Virgin Orbit, Planet, Satellogic, and BlackSky, which have been or are in the process of being publicly listed in this way. For now, this is taking place in the United States, but it is possible that we could begin to see this same trend in Europe in the coming years.
This interest in the sector has also led to initiatives by investment funds expressly focused on the space economy, such as the fund launched in the spring of 2021 by Arkk Invest, which joins smaller funds such as UFO Space ETF, which has been active for a number of years. Therefore, the space economy is becoming an actual asset class in its own right in which even less sophisticated investors can invest and be protected by international legislation.
Primo Space was launched last year, the first Italian technological venture capital fund (and second in the world) specialising in space investment. The new fund, promoted by Primomiglio SGR, focuses on the Italian space industry, which is witnessing major growth and is globally currently worth approx. USD 400 billion and is forecast to exceed 1.0 trillion in 2040 (source: Morgan Stanley).
The table below summarises the comparable performance of the Group for the first half of 2021 and the first half of 2020 (in Euro thousands):
| H1 2021 | H1 2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 132,879 | 175,311 | (42,432) |
| of which: Pass-through revenues | 5,135 | 7,440 | (2,305) |
| Revenues, net of pass-through revenues | 127,744 | 167,871 | (40,127) |
| Other operating revenues and changes in inventory of finished products, in progress and semi-finished |
5,707 | 5,179 | 528 |
| Costs for goods and services, personnel, other operating costs, net of capitalised costs & pass-through |
(125,825) | (156,270) | 30,444 |
| Effect valuation of investments under equity method - operating income/(charges) |
442 | 143 | 299 |
| EBITDA | 8,067 | 16,923 | (8,856) |
| Amortization, depreciation & write-downs | (10,477) | (8,389) | (2,088) |
| EBIT | (2,410) | 8,534 | (10,944) |
| Interest and other financial income (charges) | (91) | (343) | 252 |
| Net financial charges | (91) | (343) | 252 |
| Investment income/(charges) | - | - | - |
| Profit/(loss) before taxes | (2,501) | 8,191 | (10,692) |
| Current and deferred taxes | 60 | 227 | (167) |
| Group & minority interest net profit/(loss) | (2,441) | 8,418 | (10,859) |
The "pass-through revenues" derive from agreements reached with the European Space Agency in August 2015 for the development and construction of the new "P120" motor for future generation Vega-C and Ariane 6 launches. As a result of the implementation of these agreements, the Avio Group consolidated revenues include the following dual invoicing:
Revenues net of "pass-through" revenues were Euro 127,744 thousand in the first half of 2021, down Euro 40,127 thousand (-23.9%) on the first half of 2020. This net decrease is mainly attributable to Vega's return-to-flight, which led to the postponement of activities and revenues relating to the development of the new Vega C launcher and to the Ariane programme for the planned phase-out of Ariane 5, partially offset by the future Ariane 6 programme.
| H1 2021 | H1 2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ariane | 37,840 | 54,502 | (16,662) |
| Vega | 73,627 | 99,875 | (26,248) |
| Tactical Propulsion | 14,590 | 9,314 | 5,276 |
| Liquid Propulsion | 1,029 | 3,667 | (2,638) |
| Other revenues | 658 | 514 | 144 |
| Revenues, net of pass-through revenues | 127,744 | 167,871 | (40,127) |
The above revenues breakdown by business line as follows:
EBITDA in the first half of 2021 was Euro 8,067 thousand, decreasing Euro 8,856 thousand on H1 2020.
EBIT was a loss of Euro 2,410 thousand, decreasing Euro 10,944 thousand on H1 2020.
EBITDA against H1 2020 was mainly affected by the decrease in Net Revenues, while the greater EBIT decrease relates to amortisation and depreciation on investments entering into service in the P120 motors (Ariane 6 and Vega C first stage) and in the Zefiro 40 (Vega C second stage).
The H1 2021 results benefitted from the research and development tax credit for Euro 1.1 million (Euro 1.4 million in H1 2020), in relation to the reduced advancement of costs incurred in the period with regards to long-term orders for the research and development to which the benefit refers. The Group has benefitted since 2017 from the research and development tax credit for operations commissioned by the European Space Agency. This contribution, of Euro 1.1 million for the first half of 2021, comprised the benefits matured between 2017 and 2019, recognised to the income statement in the first half of 2021 on the basis of the advancement of the costs incurred in the period with regards to orders for the research and development operations to which the benefit refers.
Currently, this benefit maturing between 2017 and 2019, on the basis of the state of advancement of long-term orders which have incurred costs against which the tax credit may be applied, is expected to benefit the medium-term period with an effect on the results of each year and period depending on the effective level of advancement of the qualifying orders.
Similarly to the first half of 2020, in the first half of 2021, no portion of the additional potential benefits from the tax credits maturing in 2021 was recognised.
For a more complete representation of the Group's earnings performance, the EBITDA and EBIT adjusted to exclude Group non-recurring and unusual components are presented below. The above adjusted amounts (in Euro thousands) and the relative margins for H1 2021 and H1 2020 are reported below:
| H1 2021 | H1 2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adjusted EBITDA | 10,484 | 19,878 | (9,394) |
| Adjusted EBITDA Margin (against revenues net of pass-through revs.) |
8.2% | 11.8% | |
| Adjusted EBIT | 7 | 11,489 | (11,482) |
| Adjusted EBIT Margin (against revenues net of pass-through revs.) |
0.0% | 6.8% |
The Adjusted EBITDA is considered by management as representative of the Group's operating results as, in addition to not considering the effects of amortisation and depreciation policies, the amounts and types of employed capital funding and any rate changes, already excluded from EBITDA, it also excludes non-recurring and extraordinary components of Group operations, improving the comparability of the operating results.
H1 2021 Adjusted EBITDA was Euro 10,484 thousand (8.2% of net revenues), down Euro 9,394 thousand on Euro 19,878 thousand in H1 2020 (11.8% of net revenues), mainly due to the abovestated effect of the Vega return to flight activities, which put back the Vega C development activities, in addition to the transition from Ariane 5 to Ariane 6 and the differing weight of non-recurring activities, mainly attributable to the Vega return to flight and the COVID-19 prevention procedures.
Adjusted EBIT, also considered by management as representative of the Group's operating results, consists of EBIT excluding non-recurring or extraordinary components, already excluded for the calculation of Adjusted EBITDA.
Adjusted EBIT for H1 2021 was Euro 7 thousand, decreasing Euro 11,482 thousand on Euro 11,489 thousand in H1 2020 (6.8% of net revenues). Net of the impact of the increased amortisation and depreciation connected with the entry into service of the P120 motors investments (Ariane 6 and Vega C first stage) and for the Zefiro 40 (Vega C second stage), the reduction in Adjusted EBIT reflects the same considerations underlying the Adjusted EBITDA movements.
The reconciliation between EBIT, Adjusted EBIT and Adjusted EBITDA for the first half of 2021 and the first half of 2020 is provided below (Euro thousands):
| H1 2021 | H1 2020 | Change | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | EBIT | (2,410) | 8,534 | (10,944) | |
| Non-recurring Charges/(Income) comprising: | |||||
| - Additional issues / incentives | 259 | 67 | 192 | ||
| - Corporate, legal and tax consultancy | 1 | 521 | (520) | ||
| - Indemnities | - | - | - | ||
| - COVID-19 extraordinary charges | 636 | 1,106 | (470) | ||
| - Other non-recurring charges/(income) | 1,457 | 1,186 | 271 | ||
| - Settlements | - | - | - | ||
| B | Total Non-recurring Charges/(Income) | 2,353 | 2,880 | (527) | |
| A | Investor Fees | 64 | 75 | (11) | |
| D | Adjusted EBIT | A+B+C | 7 | 11,489 | (11,482) |
| E | Net amortisation & depreciation | 10,477 | 8,389 | 2,088 | |
| Adjusted EBITDA | D+ E | 10,484 | 19,878 | (9,394) |
"COVID-19 extraordinary charges" concerns the COVID-19 prevention procedure costs, mainly for protection and distancing equipment at employee work and transport stations. In the first half of 2020, the account included two donations to Colleferro Civil Protection Services and the Kourou Hospital to purchase hospital equipment to respond to the COVID-19 emergency for Euro 500 thousand.
"Other non-recurring charges/(income)" of Euro 1,457 thousand relates to costs incurred in the period for the Vega VV18 return to flight to implement the IEC recommendations following the VV17 failure of November 2020. In H1 2020, the amount of Euro 1,186 thousand mainly referred to the previously indicated activities for the VV16 return to flight launch campaign, subsequent to the failure of the VV15 flight, due to the temporary suspension of activities at the Kourou launch base following the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to the subsequent exceptionally adverse weather conditions in French Guyana.
"Additional issues / incentives" of Euro 259 thousand (Euro 67 thousand in H1 2020) refer to employee leaving incentives.
Net financial charges in the first half of 2021 amounted to Euro 91 thousand. The decrease of Euro 252 thousand from Euro 343 thousand in the first half of 2020 was primarily due to financial charges associated with tax settlements incurred in the first half of 2020.
The Group balance sheet is broken down in the following table (in Euro thousands):
| June 30, 2021 | December 31, 2020 |
Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tangible assets and investment property | 118,638 | 115,137 | 3,501 |
| Rights-of-use | 8,546 | 9,209 | (663) |
| Goodwill | 61,005 | 61,005 | - |
| Intangible assets with definite life | 127,530 | 125,581 | 1,949 |
| Investments | 9,554 | 9,112 | 442 |
| Total fixed assets | 325,273 | 320,044 | 5,229 |
| Net working capital | (56,877) | (58,224) | 1,347 |
| Other non-current assets | 71,439 | 74,140 | (2,701) |
| Other non-current liabilities | (123,325) | (127,840) | 4,515 |
| Net deferred tax assets | 78,119 | 77,975 | 144 |
| Provisions for risks and charges | (27,463) | (31,735) | 4,271 |
| Employee benefits | (10,868) | (11,261) | 393 |
| Net capital employed | 256,298 | 243,100 | 13,198 |
| Non-current financial assets | 6,337 | 6,259 | 78 |
| Net capital employed & Non-current financial assets |
262,635 | 249,359 | 13,276 |
| Net Financial Position | 36,575 | 62,635 | (26,060) |
| Equity | (299,210) | (311,994) | 12,784 |
| Source of funds | (262,635) | (249,359) | (13,276) |
"Total fixed assets" amounted to Euro 325,273 thousand at June 30, 2021, a net increase of Euro 5,229 thousand on December 31, 2020 as a combined effect of the following main movements:
• the essentially unchanged amount of Investments due to the slight change in the period relating to the investment in the jointly-controlled company Europropulsion S.A., which is measured at equity, increasing due to the 50% share of profits matured in the period January 1 to June 30, 2021 of Euro 442 thousand, without any decrease during the period for dividends, as not decided upon by this company.
The "Other non-current assets" and "Other non-current liabilities" in the balance sheet respectively include a receivable from the General Electric Group and a related tax payable of Euro 58,220 thousand recognised in the first half of 2016, following the receipt from the Tax Agency of the settlement notice of registration tax, mortgage tax and land tax, for a total amount of Euro 58,220 thousand, relating to the corporate transactions which in 2013 resulted in the sale of the company GE Avio S.r.l. (containing the assets of the AeroEngine division of the Avio Group) to the General Electric Group. In 2020 the Tax Agency appealed the judgment of the second instance, favourable to the Company, to the Court of Cassation. The Company acted promptly, filing its counter-appeal.
The recognition of the above-mentioned receivable from the General Electric Group is based on specific contractual clauses by which this latter is required to indemnify Avio S.p.A. with reference to any liabilities which may arise in relation to indirect taxes concerning the corporate operations which in 2013 resulted in the sale of the company GE Avio S.r.l. (containing the assets of the AeroEngine division of the Avio Group) to the General Electric Group.
In addition, also on the basis of specific contractual provisions, the General Electric Group is required to make available to Avio S.p.A. any amounts requested by the Tax Agency by the payment deadlines.
For further details, reference should be made to paragraphs 3.9 "Other non-current assets" and 3.24 "Other non-current liabilities", in addition to the section "Legal and tax disputes and contingent liabilities" in the Explanatory Notes.
"Net working capital" was substantially stable on December 31, 2020, resulting in an excess of liabilities over assets of Euro 56,877 thousand. The main components are outlined in the following table (in Euro thousands):
| June 30, 2021 | December 31, 2020 |
Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contract work-in-progress, net of advances | (153,532) | (143,011) | (10,521) |
| Inventories | 59,680 | 51,474 | 8,206 |
| Advances to suppliers | 90,350 | 88,835 | 1,515 |
| Trade payables | (52,674) | (66,454) | 13,780 |
| Trade receivables | 4,533 | 2,175 | 2,358 |
| Other current assets and liabilities | (5,234) | 8,757 | (13,991) |
| Net working capital | (56,877) | (58,224) | 1,347 |
The current trading performance is substantially due to the cyclical nature of the receipt of advances from clients and works on orders.
"Other current assets and liabilities" of net working capital reported a net decrease of Euro 13,991 thousand to a negative Euro 5,234 thousand. The main components of this account are outlined in the following table (in Euro thousands):
| June 30, 2021 | December 31, 2020 |
Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| VAT receivables | 19,673 | 26,217 | (6,544) |
| Research and development tax credits | 1,563 | 1,563 | - |
| Current tax receivables | 4,392 | 5,315 | (923) |
| Other current assets | 11,751 | 8,953 | 2,798 |
| Current income tax liabilities | (8,767) | (8,488) | (279) |
| Other current liabilities | (33,846) | (24,803) | (9,043) |
| Other current assets and liabilities | (5,234) | 8,757 | (13,991) |
"VAT Receivables" report a net decrease due to the reimbursement in March 2021 by the Tax Agency of an amount of Euro 7,879 thousand, including interest of Euro 39 thousand concerning the 2018 financial year, partially offset by the VAT receivable arising in the period, mainly against the acquisition of assets for which it is not possible to utilise the VAT ceiling.
Turning to research and development tax credits, during the half-year there were no significant legal changes and the balance did not change since the offsetting of the portion of the credit matured in 2020 is expected to begin in September 2020 following the release of the relative "certification" from the appointed auditor, as required by the applicable legislation.
Similarly to the first half of 2020, in the first half of 2021, no portion of the additional potential benefits from the tax credits maturing in 2021 was recognised.
"Other current liabilities" increased on December 31, 2020, mainly due to a number of variable employee remuneration items settled in July 2021, in addition to the dividends approved by the subsidiary Spacelab S.p.A. in favour of the "Italian Space Agency" minority shareholder.
At June 30, 2021, the Avio Group had a net cash position of Euro 36,575 thousand.
In response to recent EMSA guidelines issued in March 2021 and the subsequent CONSOB communication No. 5/21 issued in April 2021, this cash position of the Avio Group is presented below in accordance with these guidelines of the regulatory authorities.
| June 30, 2021 |
December 31, 2020 |
Change | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Cash and cash equivalents | (88,020) | (124,666) | 36,646 |
| B | Other liquidity | - | - | - |
| A | Other current financial assets | - | - | - |
| D | Liquidity (A+B+C) | (88,020) | (124,666) | 36,646 |
| E | Current financial debt (including debt instruments but excluding the current portion of non-current financial debt) |
9,540 | 15,425 | (5,885) |
| F | Current portion of non-current bank payables | 10,056 | 10,063 | (8) |
| G | Current financial debt (E+F) | 19,596 | 25,488 | (5,892) |
| H | Net current financial debt (G-D) | (68,424) | (99,178) | 30,754 |
| I | Non-current financial debt (excluding current portion and debt instruments) |
31,849 | 36,543 | (4,694) |
| J | Debt instruments | - | - | - |
| K | Trade payables and other non-current payables | - | - | - |
| L | Non-current financial debt (I + J + K) | 31,849 | 36,543 | (4,694) |
| M | Total financial debt (H + L) | (36,575) | (62,635) | 26,060 |
The net cash position, reported at item "M Total financial debt (H+L)" of the table above as per the recommendations of the regulatory authorities, reduced from a positive balance of Euro 62,635 thousand at December 31, 2020 to Euro 36,575 thousand at June 30, 2021, decreasing Euro 26,060 thousand, principally due to the cyclical nature of operating cash flows, in line with expectations, in addition to capital expenditures in the period (Euro 14,781 thousand). There were no restrictions on liquidity.
The current financial debt, amounting to Euro 9,540 thousand (Euro 15,425 thousand at December 31, 2020), includes:
The current portion of non-current financial debt, amounting to Euro 10,056 thousand (Euro 10,063 thousand at December 31, 2020), includes:
The non-current financial debt, amounting to Euro 31,849 thousand (Euro 36,543 thousand at December 31, 2020), includes:
Consolidated equity at June 30, 2021 amounts to Euro 299,211 thousand, decreasing Euro 12,783 thousand compared to Equity at December 31, 2020, as a result of the following main movements:
Investment in research and development is a key factor in achieving and maintaining a competitive position in the space industry.
Avio, as always, devoted considerable resources to the research, development and innovation of products and processes which further its mission. Among its objectives is also the environmentally sustainable development of its activities and products, with particular attention paid to the issues of environmental protection, facility safety and the protection of its workforce.
Regarding such key issues, Avio continues to collaborate closely with national institutions such as the Italian Space Agency (ASI), the Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR) and the Economic Development Ministry (MISE), in addition to international institutions such as the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Union.
Avio has developed a network of partnerships with Universities and research bodies in Italy and Europe, among which the Italian Aerospace Research Center (CIRA), the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), the Universities of Rome, the Polytechnic University of Milan, the 'Federico II' University of Naples, the University of Padua, the University of Forlì, the Sardinian AeroSpace District (DASS) and the Polymeric and Composite Materials and Structures Engineering cluster of Campania (IMAST). Avio also forms part of various consortia between European research institutes and industrial partners to support research in the field of energetic materials.
The Group has maintained its participation in research projects with various national and international organizations active in aerospace research. In particular, it continues to collaborate with universities involved in researching advanced solid propellants, composite materials, solid rocket motor (SRM) propulsion systems, cryogenic propulsion, hybrid propulsion and with major global manufacturers and research institutes developing propulsion technologies and innovative modules and components that can benefit from the synergy of individual specific competencies.
Research and development costs incurred by the Avio Group in H1 2021 amounted to Euro 43.2 million (Euro 65.4 million in H1 2020), equating to 32.5% of gross consolidated revenues for H1 2021 (37.3% in H1 2020).
Net of pass-through costs, research and development by the Group in H1 2021 incurred costs of Euro 38.1 million, 29.8% of revenues net of pass-through revenues (Euro 58.0 million in H1 2020, equal to 34.5% of revenues net of pass-through revenues).
Self-financed and executed activities amounted in H1 2021 to Euro 7.5 million (Euro 4.4 million in H1 2020). Self-financed activities in H1 2021 included Euro 5.7 million relating to development costs capitalised as Intangible assets with definite life (Euro 3.4 million in H1 2020) and Euro 1.8 million concerning research costs or development costs not capitalisable and directly recharged to the income statement (Euro 1.0 million in H1 2020).
The total amount of costs related to self-financed activities charged to the income statement in H1 2021 was Euro 5.2 million (Euro 2.8 million in H1 2020), comprising Euro 1.8 million of directly expensed non-capitalisable costs (Euro 1.0 million in H1 2020) and Euro 3.4 million for the amortisation of development costs capitalised (principally) in previous years (Euro 1.8 million in H1 2020).
In the first half of 2021, Avio continued its innovation upon the main product lines, harmonising basic research, applied research and pre-competitive development activities.
In Avio's strategic vision, solid propulsion represents a mature but competitive technology that significantly reduces the cost of launch services and keeps the European space carrier market competitive on the global scene. Avio has made clear that its vision includes the consolidation and further development of both VEGA and the forthcoming Ariane 6 launcher, set to replace Ariane 5. Having successfully carried out the P120 bench qualification test for Vega C in January 2019, the related bench qualification firing test for Ariane 6 was carried out in October 2020.
In the first half of 2021, in addition to the development programs for the new propulsion shared between VEGA and Ariane (the P120C), Avio further consolidated its VEGA C market position through the configuration capable of competing in the large SAR satellite segment for earth observation. Regarding the solid propulsion engine segment, Avio has carried out various research activities to consolidate and optimize production technologies for qualified products concerning the Ariane 5 and VEGA launchers, and to prepare for the development of the forthcoming generations of European launch vehicles, Ariane 6, VEGA C and VEGA E.
Following the qualification tests on the Zefiro 9 VT3 motor in October 2021, which was specifically developed for the new Vega C, in the first half of 2021 the finalisation of the qualification review continued in view of the 2022 maiden flight.
Following the signing of an ATP with MDBA, preparatory work began on the development of the axial booster of the next-generation TESEO MK2/E weapon system, a long-range, dual-role, anti-ship missile with land-attack capability.
Negotiations are also underway with MBDA for Project ACQUILA, a first-stage solid rocket booster for the new TWISTER endo-atmospheric interceptor for hypersonic threats.
Research and development in materials continued to focus on the development of advanced, high performance and low toxicity solid propellants for implementation in the Ariane and Vega programs. Additionally, the possible expansion of the Avio composite materials production chain has been carefully researched and analysed, leading to the identification of various possible spin-offs in other sectors.
Avio considers cryogenic propulsion based on liquid oxygen and methane as the answer to future generations of late stages for launch vehicles, as well as for exploration spacecraft. In the first half of 2021, work continued on the design of the liquid propulsion module (LPM) aimed
at managing the propellent needed to fuel the M10 motor. The development of the M10 motor also continued for the provision of propulsion for the third stage of the future VEGA E.
After completing the Preliminary Design Review of the motor system and successfully closing the PDR's of the main subsystems, including those on the valves, the combustion chamber and the oxygen turbo pump, the first 2 full-scale prototypes of the M10 motor's LOX/CH4 combustion chamber were built entirely in ALM, and successfully subjected to mechanical pressure and cold fluid dynamics testing at the Avio Colleferro facility. After these acceptance tests, the second model was then assembled with the rest of the equipment - including valves, tubing, sensors and harness - and configured for the firing test. The fire test campaign was successfully concluded at the end of February 2020 at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. This was the first test campaign for a prototype for an innovative 100KN combustion chamber with cooling channel, manufactured in ALM by implementing the Avio "Single Material Single Part" patent.
The results confirmed that additive technology can indeed be used to achieve a suitable thermal exchange for a full-scale combustion chamber with a single low thermal diffusion material (100 KN combustion chamber constructed with one piece and one material utilising ALM technology). This marks an important step forward for the development and qualification of the M10 LOx-CH4 motor (for the upper stage of the Vega E), fully using ALM.
In the first half of 2021, manufacturing activities of all components continued, including the combustion chamber, injection plate, turbo-pumps, valves, sensors and tubing, which will make up the first development model of the entire M10 motor, named DM1, whose integration expected in H2 2021 will culminate in the fire test campaign at the innovative Avio Space Propulsion Test Facility (SPTF) on the Salto di Quirra military range in Sardinia.
Vega E, whose first flight is scheduled for 2025, thanks to the introduction of the innovative and highly-performing M10 motor, will be capable of launching approximately three tons into orbit, that is twice the current Vega.
In addition, one of its main features, thanks to its M10 cryogenic engine, will be the release of numerous satellites in various orbits on the same mission and at competitive cost.
The development of the M10 motor and the definition and architecture of Vega E's Upper Stage (VUS) were funded for the first phase (2017-2019) under CM2016. The results obtained in the first phase made it possible to acquire new funding for the second development phase (2020-2022), as agreed at the recent European Ministerial Conference in November 2019.
Avio has continued to self-fund the launch and the development of LOx and LCH4 cryogenic resins for a new generation of large liner-free composite tanks (Cryo Tanks) to be included in the future version of the Vega E Upper Stage.
In the first half of 2021, tests continued in Colleferro to verify the permeability and mechanical and thermal properties of the composite structures in contact with the liquid oxygen cryogenic and oxidising environment. Based on the results of tests conducted on small-scale models of the filamentwound tanks produced in 2020, work has begun on the fourth linerless model to be LOX tested at Avio's Colleferro facilities in 2021.
At the same time, design work has begun on the carbon-fibre, thermoplastic-resin tanks to be made by way of automatic fibre replacement technology, which will have a construction process that is more suited to demonstrating the feasibility of a future "common-bulk" LOX/LCH4 tank to optimise the fuel system of the M10 motor for use in the third stage of Vega E.
During the first half of 2021, Avio continued the VEGA C launcher's development, finalising the necessary documentation for the Qualification Review under the ESA VECEP contract. The new Vega C launcher is based on a first stage with 50% greater total thrust than the current Vega and a fourth stage with 15% greater total thrust. The goal, among others, is to improve the launcher's capabilities by increasing its reference payload by over 50%.
In response to increasing small satellite demand, research continued, during 2021, on the development of the new VEGA Light launcher. The performance of this new launcher will be optimised to put into circular orbit (500X500 Km SSO) a payload of approx. 250 KG.
In the first half of 2021, following signing of the agreement between Thales Alenia Space and Avio S.p.A., as co-prime contractors, and the European Space Agency (ESA), work continued for the development and construction of the unmanned and reusable space transport system known as Space Rider, which, thanks to its integration with the Vega modules, will create an integrated family of services under the title of Vega Space Systems (VSS). In this regard, on December 9, 2020, Thales Alenia Space and Avio S.p.A.
In the first half of 2021, development work also continued on the Hera propulsion system, a planetary defence project funded by the ESA and which involves a consortium of European companies lead by OHB System AG. The ESA's Hera mission is scheduled for launch in 2024 and will be carried out in synergy with NASA's Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART). Hera and DART will have the goal of exploration and the altering of the trajectory of a binary system of asteroids (a pair of near-Earth asteroids known as Didymos), which will be reached by the Hera spacecraft in 2026.
In H1 2021, CAMM-ER missile motor development activities continued as planned. The qualification programme continues, as does "accelerated ageing", to verify mid and end-of-life performance, in addition to the industrialisation activities. Avio support of MBDA has also continued in relation to the environmental testing with the delivery of 2 more inert motors.
Production and delivery of the Aster 30, Aster Sustainer 15 and 30, Aspide Improved and Marte boosters to export customers continued.
Obsolescence solution activities also continued for Aster MLU. Activities of particular note included: the use of fibre developed and produced by Avio for the construction of motor casings, the development of a new propellant with the same ballistic performance that maintains its mechanical characteristics at low temperatures and extension of the useful life, and the replacement of materials subject to non-European government authorisations, avoiding restrictions such as those imposed by the USA.
A second tranche of a production contract for the re-motorisation of the Aster Booster for the Italian armed forces was acquired, with an order to cover an additional five years of production.
Avio has also acquired a new development programme for an anti-ship system and is in negotiations for participation in a consortium to collaborate on the design and production of an anti-ballistic missile in order to broaden the company's offering in the defence sector.
With regard to Italy's National Military Research Plan (or "PNRM"), Avio continues to collaborate with Politecnico di Milano on development of a sub-orbital target.
At June 30, 2021, Avio Group employees numbered 944, slightly decreasing on 950 at December 31, 2020 and on June 30, 2020.
The number of employees does not include those of the company Europropulsion S.A. (68), consolidated at equity. The majority of the workforce is employed by the parent company, Avio S.p.A., which at the same date numbered 819 (823 at December 31, 2020 and 822 at June 30, 2020).
In June 2021, the corporate structure was changed with the key objective of:
• Management of industrial relations
In the first half of the year, meetings continued with the Workers' Representative Body in order to engage union representatives concerning the industrial challenges of the period.
The Workers' Representative Body was informed of the need not to extend the 7 temporary-worker agreements that expired in December 2020 and January 2021 and of the suspension of 5 staffleasing agreements beginning on June 1, 2021, concerning manual labour.
Ample information on this situation was also provided to the local trade unions on February 22, 2021, even though they, along with the Workers' Representative Body, had already been notified in the second half of 2020.
In the same way, given the return of the crisis, the local trade unions and Workers' Representative Body were met with on July 13, 2021, to present the recovery plan, which called for the full return of temp workers on contracts that expired in December and January (with the exception of one worker who, in the meantime, had managed to find work elsewhere) and the uninterrupted continuation of staff-leasing agreements concerning manual labour. They were also notified of the expected need for approximately 18 additional workers in the second half of the year.
• Managing the COVID-19 emergency
Discussions are ongoing concerning the need to continue with certain actions to combat the spread of the virus and to implement others. More specifically, the company has begun a vaccination campaign within Avio, which involved 15% of the workforce.
• Other activities
During the period under review, the following agreements were reached:
In the first half of 2021, in line with the need to maintain and develop the business and, in particular, to deal with the activities related to the Vega C and Vega E programmes and the orbital launch systems, the Company launched a hiring plan that concerned the following personnel: 1 executive, 6 senior managers, 9 professionals, 16 white-collar and 2 blue-collar employees (total of 34), of
which 94% graduates possessing various degrees of experience and specific skills in various professional areas.
47% of new hires were in the Engineering area and 21% in the Operations area. In 13 cases, this involved the stabilisation of company personnel on consulting or staff-leasing contracts. During the period, targeting was also undertaken for the hiring of additional personnel. Thus far, between July 1 and September 30, 34 new hires are planned, 85% of which related to Engineering and Operations. Regarding Personnel Development in the first half of 2021, 4 mid-level managers were promoted to executive management.
For white-collar staff, 53 development/promotion measures were applied to 11% of the corporate population, including 3 promotions to the qualification of Professional Expert (the highest Manager classification), 9 promotions to the qualification of Manager, and 6 promotions to the qualification of Professional. The company's new organisation has generally facilitated the professional growth of individuals who have been given direct responsibility over products and/or processes.
Development efforts also continued for blue-collar workers during the period, concerning 15 employees, or 4.6% of the workforce.
In both cases, work will continue throughout the year with promotion and development efforts.
With regard to Avio Group training, in H1 2021, 15,561 hours of training were provided, with 2,887 participations (from personnel, contractors and staff leasing) in refresher courses, professional development courses, individual courses and soft skills and technical skills deployment training. A range of issues were of particular relevance in the first half of 2021, including: training focused on manufacturing processes concerning Vega; the provision of a new course on the Quality Management System; and the production of a webinar on the gender gap.
During the year, training activities were focused on the following main areas:
Distance learning training, both synchronous and asynchronous, had a positive impact on the total number of hours and participations, involving the entire company population. This also allowed for the provision of training during the COVID emergency while respecting the social distancing requirements put in place by applicable legislation. Using certified in-house trainers, safety and management training and information was provided. The e-learning platform has been enhanced, particularly in relation to the Quality area, in order to provide a new course on the Quality Management System and to implement a dedicated multimedia area used to share course materials. The e-learning platform was a key tool also to provide training on safety issues and Seveso quarterly reports; the regulatory area, to provide training on Legislative Decree 231; the on-boarding phase for newly-hired personnel via a dedicated multi-media course.
During 2021, the pilot project involving personnel from the Industrial Operations and Quality units and aimed at evaluating the performance of blue-collar and white-collar personnel without an MBO plan was expanded. The project, which involves the mapping of roles and the creation/updating of the specific job descriptions of each production unit of Avio, involved the training of all department heads and the production unit managers.
Regarding training methods, the structured learning organisation model was used, as it has been in previous years. This allows the organisation to learn through the active involvement of managers in the design of training activities for both direct groups and cross-departmental groups, therefore supporting increased integration among the company population.
During the first half of the year, measures continued to be strengthened to counter the spread of COVID-19, through the publication of internal Avio procedures for the measuring of body temperatures before entering the facility, through the cleaning and sanitising of work environments, the distribution of masks, the use of sanitation kits in meeting rooms, further expansion of office space, the immediate diagnostic service of antigen swabs and PCR etc. and through the adoption of a risk assessment document (DVR) setting the rules to be followed to prevent the spreading of the virus in the workplace environment. These rules were applied not only to the entire workforce but also to entering suppliers.
The support of an infection disease expert alongside the company-appointed physician, which began in November 2020, has continued, which has included individual consultations with employees and the maximum dissemination of information by way of the company's intranet, webinars, and other media.
During this period, company management extended the possibility to telework until July 31, 2021, both for working parents with at least one child under the age of 14, as per Legs. Decree No. 34/2000 ("Relaunch Decree") and for employees with certain conditions (e.g. immuno-suppression conditions), in addition to resources belonging to Staff Departments (i.e. HR, Communications, ICT, Legal and AFC), for a maximum of two days a week.
Regarding issuance of the Participation Bonus in July, there has been a decline in all (financial, industrial and quality) indicators compared to the previous year, so the bonus will not be converted into welfare services this year and will be subject to ordinary taxation.
In June, within the scope of expanding benefits to support workers, the Company decided to grant middle managers and experts a fuel card, which is to be activated in July and the value of which will be allocated on a monthly basis.
Also in June, a voluntary vaccination plan was activated for all employees of the company, of its shareholdings, and of third-party companies that provide services within Avio.
Avio promotes its image and its products through participation at major international events and a constant presence at Italian and international aerospace conferences regarding the research and development of new technologies in the specific field of space propulsion and launchers.
In addition, the Company develops its own network of scientific exchange and new product development through research collaborations with Italian and international universities and research institutes and through technical and operational collaborations with major European space agencies, in particular the Italian Space Agency (ASI), the French National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) and the European Space Agency (ESA).
In the first few months of 2021, travel restrictions in response to the SARS CoV-2 pandemic, which were particularly strict in the Lazio region, brought about a sharp reduction in the company's public relations efforts and corporate communications. The emphasis was placed on internal and digital communications.
The key events in the period included:
April 29, Kourou Extensive media coverage related to flight VV18, which successfully put the French satellite Pléiades Neo 3 in sun-synchronous orbit along with a number of rideshare satellites;
May 12, Colleferro Opening of the new Sub-Acute Care wing at Parodi Delfino Hospital, which was made possible by a Euro 250,000 donation by Avio at the beginning of the COVID emergency. The ceremony was attended by our CEO, Giulio Ranzo, and our Chairman, Roberto Italia, as well as by the Lazio Regional Councillor for Health, Alessio D'Amato; the Director General of the Rome 5 district health authority, Giorgio Giulio Santonocito; and the mayor of Colleferro, Pierluigi Sanna;
The general economic context is still being significantly impacted by the COVID-19 epidemic, although the sector in which the Company operates is less exposed than others to the related risks.
The epidemic and restrictions imposed by the French government and authorities led to the temporary suspension, from March 16, 2020, of launch preparations at the Kourou base in French Guiana. In Italy, on March 23, 2020, an Italian governmental decree suspended all non-essential business until April 3, 2020. However, Avio was allowed to continue operating, since, as part of the aerospace industry, its business is deemed of strategic importance for the Italian national economy.
In addition, the space programmes have principally been executed through the use of funding provided by the governments and the European authorities. In view of the budget demands of countries dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a risk, currently assessed as remote, that funds allocated to the space sector may be reduced.
The effects of the health emergency were felt intermittently throughout 2020, and indirectly affected Avio's internal activities, as well as slowing down the activities of suppliers and sub-contractors in Italy and the rest of Europe. At the moment, operations at all Avio facilities, and in Colleferro and French Guiana in particular, are continuing normally in order to ensure operational objectives are achieved. On April 28, 2021, the mission launched at the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, saw the success of Vega flight VV18.
Therefore, should the impacts continue in 2021 and beyond, with a progressive tightening of government intervention measures to counteract the contagion, effects may emerge, even of a significant degree, on the industrial, engineering and commercial activities of the entire aerospace sector.
In view of the above, the intrinsic risk associated with the potential effects that such an epidemic may entail is assessed as high (inherent risk high), while the control risk is assessed as medium, given that the internal control system introduced by the regulations in force is being continuously monitored and developed at an institutional level and considering that the Crisis Committee, set up by the Company, is operating in a situation of persistent uncertainty.
Although the Group considers the space programme sector less volatile in consideration of the longterm nature of projects and the backlog developed, a contraction in economic growth, a recession or a financial crisis may reduce (even significantly) demand for the components produced by the Group, with consequent impacts on operations and on the financial statements of Avio and of the Group companies.
In addition, a weak economic environment may impact the Group's access to the capital markets or the availability of favourable conditions, with consequent impacts on operations and on the financial statements of Avio and of the Group companies.
Excluding the possible macro-economic effects of COVID-19, the economic, equity and financial position of Avio is influenced by a number of macro-economic environment factors (including GDP movements, the cost of raw materials, the unemployment rate and interest rate movements), both in the countries in which the Group operates and at a global level, as a result of impacts upon the spending capacity of the individual countries (in particular in Europe) for the development of Space activities, through the national and European agencies.
Over recent years, the financial markets have featured particularly significant volatility with major repercussions on banks and financial institutions and, more generally, on the entire economy, therefore impacting the public accounts. The significant and widespread deterioration of market conditions was exacerbated by a serious and general difficulty in accessing credit, both for consumers and businesses, resulting in a lack of liquidity which affected industrial development and employment, therefore impacting the budgeting strategies of European states and consequently the spending capacity of the Space Agencies.
Although the governments and the monetary authorities have responded to this situation with extensive initiatives, including the cutting of interest rates to historic lows and the funding and bolstering of intermediaries, and although taking into consideration the signs indicating the exiting of recession for the leading economies, it currently is however not possible to predict whether and when the economy will return to pre-crisis levels, also in light of the above-mentioned COVID-19 epidemic, the situation related to the international geo-political environment and the slowing of Chinese economic growth, in addition to renewed volatility on the financial markets and tensions surrounding the financial situation and credit capacity of various countries.
Where this situation of significant weakness and uncertainty were to continue for significantly longer or worsen, particularly on the Group's market, the operations, strategies and prospects of the Group may be impacted, particularly with regards to production forecasts for future launches of Group spacecraft and for new research and development programmes, with a consequent possible impact on the Group financial statements.
In addition, as reported, the space programmes have principally been executed through the use of funding provided by the governments and the European authorities. These provisions depend on government policies and in general economic conditions in Europe. The demand for launchers is therefore supported both by the public sector and the private sector.
The space programmes, due to their inherent complexity, strategic important and source of funding, are generally dependent on plans and decisions undertaken at government level in Europe, both by individual countries and as part of international agreements, implemented by specific national and supranational institutions and agencies. These plans seek to guarantee independent access to space by the European nations.
Changes to space access policies, both at a domestic and European or international level, and unfavourable economic conditions impacting the spending allocated to these policies by national governments and supranational institutions, may impact Group operational levels with possible repercussions for operations and the Group financial statements.
Group business depends in addition on a limited number of programmes and therefore clients. Any interruptions, temporary suspensions, delays or cancellations to one or more major programmes constitutes a risk which may impact the Group's operations and financial statements. The backlog may therefore be subject to unexpected adjustments and therefore may not be indicative of future revenues or operating results.
The Group operates in the space sector principally through long-term contracts, often at fixed prices or with inflation-linked price reviews. Fixed price contracts present the risk that any additional costs may not be or are only partially reabsorbed by the client, with possible negative impacts on the Group's operations and financial statements.
In addition, for the recognition of revenues and related margins deriving from long-term works contracts, the advancement percentage method is used, based on total cost estimates for the execution of contracts and verification of the state of advancement of operations. Both these factors are by their nature significantly subject to management estimates, which in turn depend on the objective possibility and capacity to forecast future events. The occurrence of unforeseeable events, such as the persistence of the COVID-19 epidemic, and foreseeable events, to a differing degree, resulted in an increase in costs incurred for the execution of long-term contracts, possibly also in the future, with impacts on the Group's operations and financial statements. To manage this risk, the Company has put into place procedures, systems, workers and professionals that have been consolidated over time.
The Group is not a Launch Service Provider with regards to Vega launch services sales. Although the Group has control of Arianespace's Business Plan regarding the marketing of the Vega launcher and its successors, in order to determine volumes and prices that allow, according to recurring launch system costs, balanced budgeting for the launcher's development, where the Launch Service Provider does not correctly execute its role or adopts commercial practices which do not align with the Group's interest, this may have an impact on the operations and financial statements of the Group.
Group clients are responsible for declaring the compliance of products before acceptance and sale and may entirely or partially reject them where such compliance is not declared. In this case, the warranty clauses require us to replace or repair the non-compliant component, incurring the associated costs in addition to any costs necessary to understand the problem. Where the associated costs are not covered by insurance, the Group's results may be impacted. Once accepted by clients, the Group is no longer responsible for damage deriving from the malfunctioning of products, except where the pre-existence of any defects which were not evident upon acceptance is demonstrated, with the consequent further obligation to restore or repair the defective products before final use and/or launch.
In addition, for any damage, whatever the cause, and including damage deriving from defects and/or the malfunctioning of products supplied by the Group, caused during the flight of the launchers, the launch service provider shall exclusively be responsible and, where applicable, the ESA and the French government.
The Group's industrial operations require the use and the processing of explosive or chemically hazardous materials. Although these activities are conducted in accordance with applicable rules, as per a specific Safety Management System to prevent accidents, and high-quality equipment and personnel are used, accidents may occur which result in interruptions of varying lengths and thus a negative effect on the Group's results.
The electric and thermal energy used by the Company to carry out its production activities is supplied by the 40% owned subsidiary Termica Colleferro S.p.A. and 60% owned by SECI S.p.A.. As outlined in the "Commitments" section, following the arrangement with creditors, on July 5, 2021, the Bologna Court declared SECI S.p.A. bankrupt and appointed three receivers.
Termica Colleferro has always operated and continues to operate "in bonis".
In consideration of the different procedural context that arose with the declaration of bankruptcy, although the liquidation scenario of the investment in Termica Colleferro started by SECI S.p.A. remained substantially unchanged, Termica Colleferro and Avio promptly contacted the receivers in order to coordinate and accelerate the disposal of the 60% of the share capital of the Company.
Following discussions with the Receivership, in which Termica Colleferro and Avio, as supplier and customer, laid out their respective operational needs, the Bologna Court took immediate steps to initiate the sale of the stake held by SECI S.p.A. in Termica Colleferro, authorising the Receivers to take steps in this regard by issuing an authorisation order on August 18, 2021, which was followed by publication of the related call for tender on September 1, 2021.
On August 24, 2021, Termica Colleferro repaid the second instalment on the bank loan, completing the repayment plan scheduled for the entire 2021.
The presentation by SECI S.p.A. of the application for an arrangement with creditors of May 2019 is, under the terms of the Termica Colleferro bank loan agreement, an acceleration clause for repayment of the Loan.
In August 2020, while awaiting specific information from the parent company SECI S.p.A. concerning the arrangement with creditors and, more generally, the possibilities for the overall restructuring process (also in relation to the arrangement with Officine Maccaferri S.p.A.), the banks indicated that they are not in a position to carry out an assessment of the creditworthiness of the requests made by Termica Colleferro, while they shall not activate the acceleration clause.
Following the bankruptcy ruling of July 5, 2021, the acceleration clause could now be subject to evaluation by the banks in light of the changed bankruptcy scenario.
The rapid start by the receivers of the process for the sale of the share held by SECI S.p.A. in Termica Colleferro, together with the expressions of interest by third parties to acquire the share of SECI S.p.A., as well as the fact that from May 2019 to date the banks have not activated the acceleration clause of the Loan, regularly receiving the repayment of the principal amounts of the Loan and the payment of interest by Termica Colleferro, constitute elements that mitigate the risk at present.
On July 7, 2021, Avia received various extensions of production orders from MBDA France S.A.S. for the production of additional batches of boosters for the ASTER-30 anti-aircraft and anti-missile defence system for a total value of over Euro 80 million.
Deliveries related to these additional orders are expected to cover the period 2022-30.
On July 14, 2021, an agreement was signed by Avio and the commission for Italy's participation in Expo Dubai in the presence of the chairman of the Italian Space Agency, COMINT Secretary General Luigi De Leverano, and the regional councilman for Economic Development, Trade, Research & Innovation Paolo Orneli.
The application of sustainability and innovation, key themes of Expo 2020 Dubai, within the aerospace industry is the focus of the agreement by which Avio is to be a Gold Sponsor of the Italy Pavilion for the upcoming world expo to take place beginning October 1.
On July 21, 2021, at ESA's European Space Research Institute (ESRIN) in Frascati, Italy, Avio and ESA signed an agreement valued at Euro 118.8 million that ensures development of the Vega E launcher beyond 2025.
This agreement marks the start of a new phase in the development of Vega E (evolution), a more powerful version of the Vega C that will fly for the first time in 2022. The Vega E launcher will further increase its competitiveness, performance, and versatility in terms of mass and volume capabilities, while bringing about a significant reduction in launch costs. The focus of development of the Vega E is the new liquid oxygen-methane upper third-stage, which will also allow for improvements in terms of environmental sustainability.
The Project Key Point with ESA and the Commission of Inquiry conducted at the end of July 2021 had a positive outcome. The ESA authorised the completion of the qualification review with the analysis of the results of the "Hardware in the loop" (HWIL) avionic tests and the updating of the qualification Data Package with certain products (Telemetry, Multi-functional Unit, Destruction Chord) that had not yet undergone their respective qualification reviews, which will be carried out in the final quarter of the year.
On July 31, 2021, Ariane 5 successfully put into orbit two geostationary telecommunications satellites, Star One D2 and EUTELSAT QUANTUM.
Star One D2 is a high-capacity, multi-mission satellite with transponder in the Ku, Ka, C and X bands that will expand broadband coverage into new regions of Central and South America to provide Internet access to under-served populations. EUTELSAT QUANTUM is to be the world's first universal satellite able to modulate the coverage area and the strength of the telecommunication bands nearly in real time.
On August 17, 2021, Vega successfully completed mission VV19. Flight VV19 put into orbit the Pléiades Neo 4 satellite, the second satellite of the Pléiades Neo constellation, together with 4 ride-share microsatellites.
One of these is LEDSAT, a project of Rome's "La Sapienza" University aimed at studying a lightemitting diode (LED) technology used for independent optical tracking of satellites in low Earth orbit. The others are RADCUBE and SUNSTORM, for astronomical applications, and BRO-4 for security applications.
The success of these projects once again highlighted the work of Avio and Arianespace in making Vega increasingly reliable and competitive. The European launcher has confirmed its ability to put into orbit groups of rideshare satellites alongside a primary payload. This, together with the new SSMS payload adaptor that was successfully tested during flight VV16, increases the versatility of Vega in the competitive microsatellite market and provides clients with a wider range of launch opportunities.
As reported in the section "Significant Events", by private agreement on June 29, 2021, between Avio S.p.A. and the subsidiary Spacelab S.p.A., in which the Italian Space Agency holds a 30% stake, the price adjustment was set at Euro 8.5 million for the acquisition of the business unit related to the development, production, and commercialisation of launchers by Spacelab S.p.A. to Avio S.p.A., the original agreement for which was signed on March 1, 2018.
In an extraordinary session held on July 19, 2021, the shareholders of Spacelab S.p.A. approved the proportionate distribution of a dividend to Avio S.p.a. and the Italian Space Agency totalling Euro 8.0 million, to be taken from the price set for the acquisition of the aforementioned business unit. Furthermore, following the achievement of its mission to develop and commercialise the Vega launcher and its current status as research lab for the development of avionics applications, and as expected, the shareholders of Spacelab S.p.A. also approved a decrease in the company's equity that is in excess of current needs in the amount of approximately Euro 2.9 million.
The dividend and reduction of equity are to be paid to the shareholders of Avio S.p.A. and the Italian Space Agency as follows: 50% upon completion of the procedures for the reduction of Spacelab S.p.A. share capital and 50% by July 31, 2022.
For more information, see the "Significant events" section of the Directors' Report and section "3.30 Other current liabilities" of the Explanatory Notes.
In the short term, operations are expected to a certain extent to be again impacted both by the continuation of the containment and restriction measures directly relating to COVID-19 adopted by the various governmental authorities in Europe and the rest of the world and the indirect consequences of these measures, including possible delays or slowdowns to supply chain operators and sub-contractors.
In the fourth quarter, in addition to a further Vega Flight and two Ariane 5 flights, completion of the construction of the new Vega C launcher is planned, whose qualification flight is expected in Q1 2022. The Company has prepared forecasts for the year 2021 that take into account that outlined above, in addition to non-recurring costs.
Thus, a net order backlog of between Euro 850 and 900 million, net revenues of between Euro 300 and 330 million, Reported EBITDA of between Euro 30 and 32 million (including non-recurring costs
of approximately Euro 5 million) and a net result of between Euro 10 and 12 million are expected for the year 2021.
Transactions of the parent Avio S.p.A. with shareholders and with subsidiaries and associates of these latter, with subsidiaries, joint ventures, associates and investees, and with subsidiaries and associates of these latter, consist of industrial, commercial and financial transactions carried out as part of ordinary operations and concluded at normal market conditions. In particular, these concern the supply of goods and services, including of an administrative-accounting, IT, personnel management, assistance and funding and treasury management nature.
As per Art. 40 of Legislative Decree 127/1991, it is disclosed that, in consideration of the share buyback programme, at June 30, 2021, the Parent Company held 671,233 shares, representing 2.5465% of the share capital.
The Company adheres to the principles of the Corporate Governance Code of the Corporate Governance Committee for Listed Companies, established by Borsa Italiana and promoted by Borsa Italiana, ABI, Ania, Assogestioni, Assonime and Confindustria, last updated in January 2020, and has adjusted its governance system to the regulatory provisions indicated therein. The Corporate Governance Code is available on the Borsa Italiana S.p.A. website at https://www.borsaitaliana.it/comitato-corporate-governance/codice/2020.pdf.
In accordance with the regulatory obligations, the Corporate Governance and Ownership Structure Report is drawn up annually and (i) contains a general outline of the Corporate Governance System adopted by the company and (ii) information upon the ownership structure and compliance with the Corporate Governance Code, including the main governance practices applied and the features of the internal control and risk management system, also with regards to financial disclosure.
The Company, at June 30, 2021, had adopted:
iii. the Inside Information processing policy, approved on December 21, 2017 by the Company Board of Directors and amended on January 24, 2019 to incorporate regulatory changes, introduced by Legislative Decree No. 107 of August 10, 2018, concerning "Domestic law adjustment provisions in view of regulation (EC) No. 596/2014, concerning market abuse and cancellation of Directive 2003/6/EC and Directives 2003/124/EC, 2003/125/EC and 2004/72/EC;
iv. an Organisation, Management and Control model, as per Legislative Decree No. 231/2001, as amended, and updated on May 11, 2021, by the Company's Board of Directors to account for all legislative changes introduced by Legislative Decree 231/2001;
For all additional details in relation to the corporate governance of the company and all corporate governance decisions undertaken until March 19, 2021, reference should be made to the "Corporate Governance and Ownership Structure Report", published in the "Corporate Governance" section of the website, approved by the Board of Directors of Avio on March 19, 2021, prepared in compliance with Article 123-bis of the CFA and Article 89-bis of Consob Regulation 11971/1999 and in view of the recommendations of the Self-Governance Code, while also taking account of the reference documents prepared by Borsa Italiana S.p.A..
* * *
September 10, 2021
The BOARD OF DIRECTORS The Chief Executive Officer and General Manager Giulio Ranzo
| CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET | Note | June 30, 2021 |
of which related parties |
December 31, 2020 |
of which related parties |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (In Euro thousands) | |||||
| ASSETS | |||||
| Non-current assets | |||||
| Property, plant and equipment | 3.1 | 115,537 | 111,999 | ||
| Rights-of-use Investment property |
3.2 3.3 |
8,546 3,101 |
9,209 3,138 |
||
| Goodwill | 3.4 | 61,005 | 61,005 | ||
| Intangible assets with definite life | 3.5 | 127,530 | 125,581 | ||
| Investments | 3.6 | 9,554 | 9,112 | ||
| Non-current financial assets | 3.7 | 6,337 | 6,337 | 6,259 | 6,259 |
| Deferred tax assets | 3.8 | 78,119 | 77,975 | ||
| Other non-current assets | 3.9 | 71,439 | 74,140 | ||
| Total non-current assets | 481,168 | 478,418 | |||
| Current assets | |||||
| Inventories and advances to suppliers | 3.10 | 150,030 | 32,007 | 140,309 | 38,232 |
| Contract work in progress | 3.11 | 409,193 | 90,409 | 334,860 | 92,792 |
| Trade receivables | 3.12 | 4,533 | 1,547 | 2,175 | 1,634 |
| Cash and cash equivalents | 3.13 | 88,020 | 124,666 | ||
| Tax receivables | 3.14 | 25,628 | 33,094 | ||
| Other current assets | 3.15 | 11,751 | 18 | 8,954 | 4 |
| Total current assets | 689,155 | 644,058 | |||
| TOTAL ASSETS | 1,170,323 | 1,122,476 |
| CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET | Note | June 30, 2021 |
of which related parties |
December 31, 2020 |
of which related parties |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (In Euro thousands) | |||||
| EQUITY | |||||
| Share capital | 3.16 | 90,964 | 90,964 | ||
| Share Premium Reserve | 3.17 | 135,176 | 135,176 | ||
| Other reserves | 3.18 | 14,053 | 13,851 | ||
| Retained earnings Group net profit |
54,265 (2,450) |
49,373 14,118 |
|||
| Total Group Equity | 292,008 | 303,482 | |||
| Equity attributable to non-controlling | 3.19 | 7,203 | 8,512 | ||
| interests | |||||
| TOTAL EQUITY | 299,211 | 311,994 | |||
| LIABILITIES | |||||
| Non-current liabilities | |||||
| Non-current financial liabilities | 3.20 | 27,000 | 32,000 | ||
| Non-current financial payables for leasing | 3.21 | 4,849 | 1,116 | 4,543 | 1,107 |
| Employee Benefit Provisions Provisions for risks and charges |
3.22 3.23 |
10,868 21,331 |
11,261 19,382 |
||
| Other non-current liabilities | 3.24 | 123,325 | 127,840 | ||
| Total non-current liabilities | 187,373 | 195,026 | |||
| Current liabilities | |||||
| Current financial liabilities | 3.25 | 7,749 | 7,749 | 12,749 | 12,749 |
| Current financial liabilities for leasing Current portion of non-current financial payables |
3.26 3.27 |
1,791 10,056 |
73 | 2,676 10,063 |
150 |
| Provisions for risks and charges | 3.23 | 6,132 | 12,352 | ||
| Trade payables | 3.28 | 52,674 | 4,714 | 66,454 | 10,257 |
| Advances from clients for contract work-in progress |
3.11 | 562,725 | 70,838 | 477,871 | 79,515 |
| Tax payables | 3.29 | 8,767 | 8,488 | ||
| Other current liabilities | 3.30 | 33,846 | 266 | 24,803 | 248 |
| Total current liabilities | 683,740 | 615,456 | |||
| TOTAL LIABILITIES | 871,113 | 810,482 | |||
| TOTAL LIABILITIES AND EQUITY | 1,170,323 | 1,122,476 |
| CONSOLIDATED INCOME STATEMENT | Note | H1 2021 | of which related parties |
H1 2020 | of which related parties |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (In Euro thousands) | |||||
| Revenues | 3.31 | 132,879 | 45,634 | 175,311 | 54,004 |
| Change in inventory of finished products, in progress and semi-finished |
2,790 | 2,865 | |||
| Other operating income | 3.32 | 2,916 | 2,315 | ||
| Consumption of raw materials | 3.33 | (37,553) | (40,552) | ||
| Service costs | 3.34 | (59,194) | (20,016) | (85,378) | (14,383) |
| Personnel expenses | 3.35 | (39,157) | (38,614) | ||
| Amortisation & depreciation | 3.36 | (10,477) | (8,389) | ||
| Other operating costs | 3.37 | (2,333) | (3,128) | ||
| Effect valuation of investments under equity method - operating income/(charges) |
3.38 | 442 | 442 | 143 | 143 |
| Costs capitalised for internal works | 3.39 | 7,277 | 3,961 | ||
| EBIT | (2,410) | 8,534 | |||
| Financial income | 3.40 | 348 | 78 | 347 | 77 |
| Financial charges | 3.41 | (439) | (8) | (690) | (5) |
| NET FINANCIAL INCOME/(CHARGES) | (91) | (343) | |||
| Other investment income/(charges) INVESTMENT INCOME/(CHARGES) |
- | - | |||
| PROFIT/(LOSS) BEFORE TAXES | (2,501) | 8,191 | |||
| Income taxes | 3.42 | 60 | 227 | ||
| NET PROFIT/(LOSS) FOR THE PERIOD | (2,441) | 8,418 | |||
| -- of which: Owners of the parent | (2,450) | 8,309 | |||
| Non-controlling interests | 9 | 108 | |||
| (Loss)/Earnings per Share (in Euro) | -0.10 | 0.32 | |||
| Diluted (Loss)/Earnings per Share (in Euro) | -0.09 | 0.31 |
| H1 2020 |
|---|
| 8,418 |
| (112) |
| 2 |
| (110) |
| 8,308 |
| 8,199 109 |
(Euro thousands)
| Other reserves | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Share capital |
Share Premium Reserve |
Treasury shares |
Unavailable reserve for treasury shares in portfolio |
Legal reserve |
Actuarial gains/(losses) reserve |
Retained earnings |
Group result |
Total Group equity |
Non controlling interest equity |
Total Equity |
|
| Equity at 31/12/2019 | 90,964 | 141,588 | (2,668) | 2,668 | 18,193 | (3,993) | 23,176 | 26,198 | 296,126 | 7,757 | 303,883 |
| Allocation of prior year result | 26,198 | (26,198) | |||||||||
| Acquisition of treasury shares | (6,413) | (6,413) | 6,413 | (6,413) | (6,413) | ||||||
| Other changes | |||||||||||
| Comprehensive income | |||||||||||
| - Net profit for the period | 14,118 | 14,118 | 755 | 14,873 | |||||||
| - Other changes | |||||||||||
| - Actuarial gains/(losses), net of tax effect | (349) | (349) | (349) | ||||||||
| Comprehensive income | - | - | - | - | - | (349) | - | 14,118 | 13,769 | 755 | 14,524 |
| Equity at 31/12/2020 | 90,964 | 135,176 | (9,080) | 9,080 | 18,193 | (4,342) | 49,374 | 14,118 | 303,483 | 8,512 | 311,994 |
| Allocation of prior year result | 6,797 | (6,797) | |||||||||
| Distribution of dividends of the parent company Avio S.p.A. | (7,321) | (7,321) | (7,321) | ||||||||
| Allocation to reserves | |||||||||||
| Effect on retained earnings attributable to the Group and reserves attributable to minority interests of transactions under common control and approved dividends of Spacelab SpA |
(1,318) | (1,318) | |||||||||
| Other changes | (1,906) | (1,906) | (1,906) | ||||||||
| Comprehensive income | |||||||||||
| - Net Profit | (2,450) | (2,450) | 9 | (2,441) | |||||||
| - Other changes | - | - | |||||||||
| - Actuarial gains/(losses), net of tax effect | 202 | 202 | 1 | 203 | |||||||
| Comprehensive income | - | - | - | - | - | 202 | - | (2,450) | (2,247) | 10 | (2,238) |
| Equity at 30/06/2021 | 90,964 | 135,176 | (9,080) | 9,080 | 18,193 | (4,140) | 54,265 | (2,450) | 292,008 | 7,203 | 299,211 |
(Euro thousands)
| H1 2021 |
of which related parties |
H1 2020 |
of which related parties |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OPERATING ACTIVITIES | |||||
| Net profit/(loss) for the period Adjustments for: |
(2,441) | 8,418 | |||
| - Income taxes | (60) | (227) | |||
| - (Income)/charges from measurement at equity of investment in Europropulsion S.A. |
(442) | (442) | (143) | (143) | |
| - Financial (Income)/Charges | 91 | 343 | |||
| - Amortisation & Depreciation - (Gains)/losses on sale of property, plant & equipment & other (income)/charges Dividends received |
10,477 | 8,389 | |||
| Net change provisions for risks and charges | (4,272) | (2,703) | |||
| Net change employee provisions | (189) | (276) | |||
| Changes in: | |||||
| - Inventories and Advances to suppliers - Contract work-in-progress & advances from clients |
(9,722) 10,521 |
6,225 (6,294) |
(3,664) (16,754) |
1,824 (24,557) |
|
| - Trade receivables - Trade payables |
(2,358) (13,779) |
88 (5,544) |
3,623 (16,418) |
180 3,512 |
|
| - Other current & non-current assets | 7,234 | (14) | (934) | 181 | |
| - Other current & non-current liabilities | 1,629 | 18 | 3,622 | 41 | |
| Income taxes paid Interest paid |
15 (126) |
(35) (150) |
|||
| Net liquidity generated/(employed) in operating activities | (A) | (3,422) | (16,910) | ||
| INVESTING ACTIVITIES | |||||
| Investments in: - Tangible assets and investment property |
(7,105) | (7,240) | |||
| - Intangible assets with definite life | (7,675) | (4,109) | |||
| - Equity Investments | (1) | ||||
| Disposal price of tangible, intangible & financial assets | |||||
| Liquidity generated (employed) in investing activities | (B) | (14,781) | (11,349) | ||
| FINANCING ACTIVITIES | |||||
| EIB loan | (5,000) | (4,000) | |||
| Centralised treasury effect with Europropulsion S.A. joint control company |
(5,000) | (5,000) | (11,000) | (11,000) | |
| Dividends paid by the parent Avio S.p.A. Dividends attributable to minorities of subsidiaries |
(7,321) | ||||
| Acquisition of treasury shares Other changes to financial assets and liabilities |
(1,122) | (68) | (1,407) (1,326) |
(46) | |
| Liquidity generated (employed) in financing activities | (C) | (18,443) | (17,733) | ||
| INCREASE/(DECREASE) IN NET CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS | (A)+(B)+(C) | (36,646) | (45,992) | ||
| NET CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS AT BEGINNING OF PERIOD | 124,666 | 144,303 | |||
| NET CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS AT END OF PERIOD | 88,020 | 98,311 |
Avio S.p.A. (the "Company" or the "Parent Company") is a limited liability company incorporated in Italy and registered at the Rome Companies Registration Office, with Registered Office at Rome, Via Leonida Bissolati, No. 76.
The Company was incorporated on May 28, 2015 under the name Space2 S.p.A., an Italian-registered Special Purpose Acquisition Company ("SPAC"), as an SIV (Special Investment Company) in accordance with the Borsa Italiana regulation, whose shares were listed on July 28, 2015 on the Professional Segment of the Investment Vehicles Market (MIV) organised and managed by Borsa Italiana S.p.A..
On March 31, 2017, Space2 S.p.A. acquired the company Avio S.p.A., parent company of the Avio Group and, on April 10, 2017 Avio S.p.A was merged by incorporation. Space2 S.p.A. also changed its name to "Avio S.p.A." following the above-mentioned operation.
At June 30, 2021, Avio S.p.A. held, directly or indirectly, investments in seven subsidiary companies (Space S.p.A., Regulus S.A., Se.Co.Sv.Im. S.r.l., Avio Guyana S.A.S., Avio France S.A.S., AS Propulsion International B.V. and Avio India Aviation Aerospace Private Ltd. in liquidation) and in a jointly controlled company (Europropulsion S.A.) included in the consolidation scope of these financial statements (collectively the "Group" or the "Avio Group").
The consolidation scope was unchanged in the first half of 2021.
These Group consolidated financial statements are presented in Euro which is the Company's principal functional currency. The Consolidated Balance Sheet, the Consolidated Income Statement and the Consolidated Comprehensive Income Statement are reported in units of Euro; the Statement of Changes in Consolidated Equity and the Consolidated Cash Flow Statement, as well as these Explanatory Notes, are reported in thousands of Euro where not otherwise indicated. The foreign subsidiaries are included in the consolidated financial statements in accordance with the accounting policies described in the notes below.
These condensed half-year financial statements at June 30, 2021 were prepared in accordance with International Accounting Standards (hereafter also "IFRS") issued by the International Accounting Standards Board ("IASB") and approved by the European Union. IFRS refers to the International Financial Reporting Standards, the revised international accounting standards ("IAS") and all of the interpretations of the International Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee ("IFRIC") previously known as the Standing Interpretations Committee ("SIC").
In the preparation of these Condensed half-year financial statements, drawn up in accordance with IAS 34 – Interim Financial Reporting, the same accounting standards were adopted as for the preparation of the consolidated financial statements of the Avio Group at December 31, 2020, except for that outlined in the Explanatory Notes - "Accounting standards, amendments and interpretations applied from January 1, 2021" paragraph. Therefore, these financial statements must be read together with the consolidated financial statements of the Avio Group at December 31, 2020.
The preparation of condensed financial statements in application of IFRS requires estimates and assumptions on the values of the assets and liabilities, on the disclosures relating to assets and contingent liabilities at the reporting date and on the revenues and costs in the period. If in the future these estimates and assumptions, which are based on the best current valuations made by
management, should differ from actual circumstances, they will be modified appropriately in the period in which the circumstances change.
Some valuation processes, in particular the most complex such as the determination of any loss in value of non-current assets or the valuation of contingent liabilities, are generally made on a complete basis on the preparation of the annual accounts, when all the necessary information is available, except where there are specific indications of impairment which require an immediate valuation of any loss in value or an accrual is required to the provision for risks and charges.
The Condensed half-year financial statements at June 30, 2021 consist of the Consolidated Balance Sheet, the Consolidated Income Statement, the Consolidated Comprehensive Income Statement, the Statement of changes in Consolidated Equity, the Consolidated Cash Flow Statement and the Explanatory Notes.
The financial statements of the Group are presented as follows:
In accordance with IAS 34, these condensed half-year financial statements at June 30, 2021 present the 2020 comparative figures for the Balance Sheet items (Consolidated Balance Sheet) and the first half year 2020 for the Income Statement items (Consolidated Income Statement, Consolidated Comprehensive Income Statement, Statement of changes in Consolidated Equity and Consolidated Cash Flow Statement).
The consolidation principles adopted are in line with those utilised for the preparation of the consolidated financial statements at December 31, 2020 of the Avio Group, to which reference should be made for further information.
The financial statements of each company consolidated are prepared in the primary currency where they operate. For the condensed half-year financial statements, the financial statements of each foreign entity which utilises a currency other than the Euro is translated into this latter, as the Group's functional currency and the consolidated financial statement presentation currency. The transactions in currencies other than the Euro are translated into the functional currency at the exchange rate at the date of the transaction and the exchange gains and losses from the subsequent closure of these transactions are recorded in the income statement. Monetary assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currencies are translated at the exchange rates at the reporting date. The positive and/or negative differences between the values adjusted to the closing exchange rate and those recorded in the period are also recognised in the income statement. Non-monetary assets valued at historical cost in currencies other than the functional currency are not translated at the current exchange rate at the reporting date.
The Condensed half-year financial statements at June 30, 2021 include the financial statements of the parent company, of the Italian and overseas companies in which it holds directly or indirectly at June 30, 2021 more than 50% of the share capital, consolidated under the line-by-line method, and the financial statements of the company Europropulsion S.A., held 50% jointly with another shareholder, consolidated under the equity method.
The consolidation scope at June 30, 2021 was as follows:
| Companies included in the consolidation scope at June 30, 2021 | Holding |
|---|---|
| Parent | |
| Avio S.p.A. | - |
| Companies consolidated by the line-by-line method | |
| Spacelab S.p.A. | 70% |
| Regulus S.A. | 60% |
| SE.CO.SV.IM. S.r.l. | 100% (*) |
| Avio Guyane S.A.S. | 100% |
| Avio France S.A.S. | 100% |
| ASPropulsion International B.V. | 100% |
| Avio India Aviation Aerospace Private Limited (**) | 100% (***) |
| Jointly controlled companies, measured at equity | |
| Europropulsion S.A. | 50% |
| Associates, measured at equity | |
| Termica Colleferro S.p.A. | 40% |
(*) Holding through ASPropulsion International B.V.
(**) The company is in liquidation. No financial commitments are expected for the Group related to the liquidation.
(***) Investment held in part directly by Avio S.p.A. (95%) and in part through ASPropulsion International B.V. (5%).
The non-controlling interest in the equity and results of the subsidiaries consolidated are recorded separately from the Group equity, in the account "Non-controlling interest equity".
The accounting policies adopted are in line with the recognition and measurement criteria utilised in the preparation of the consolidated financial statements at December 31, 2020 of the Avio Group, to which reference should be made for further information, with the exception of that outlined in the following paragraph.
The following IFRS accounting standards, amendments and interpretations were applied for the first time by the Group from January 1, 2021:
• on May 28, 2020, the IASB published an amendment called "Covid-19 Related Rent Concessions (Amendment to IFRS 16)". The document establishes for lessees the option to account for the reductions in rents connected with COVID-19 without having to assess, through the analysis of contracts, whether the definition of lease modification of IFRS 16 has been complied with. Therefore, lessees applying this option will be able to account for the effects of rent reductions directly in the statement of profit or loss on the effective date of the reduction. This amendment applies to financial statements beginning
June 1, 2020. The adoption of this amendment does not have effects on the consolidated financial statements of the Group.;
All the amendments entered into force as of January 1, 2021. The adoption of this amendment does not have effects on the consolidated financial statements of the Group.;
• on March 31, 2021, the IASB published an amendment entitled "Covid-19-Related Rent Concessions beyond June 30, 2021 (Amendments to IFRS 16)" which extends by one year the application period of the amendment to IFRS 16 issued in 2020 and relating to the accounting for benefits granted to lessees due to COVID-19. These amendments are applied from April 1, 2021 and advance application is permitted. The adoption of this amendment does not have effects on the consolidated financial statements.
On May 14, 2020, the IASB published the following amendments:
All the amendments will enter into force from January 1, 2022. The Directors do not expect these amendments to have a significant impact on the Group consolidated financial statements.
At the reporting date, the relevant bodies of the European Union had not yet concluded the process necessary for the implementation of the amendments and standards described below.
• on May 18, 2017, the IASB published IFRS 17 - Insurance Contracts which replaces IFRS 4 - Insurance Contracts.
The new standard ensures that an entity provides pertinent information which accurately presents the rights and obligations under insurance contracts. The IASB developed the standard in order to eliminate inconsistencies and weaknesses in the existing accounting policies, providing a single principle-based framework to take account of all types of insurance contracts, including reinsurance contracts held by an insurer.
The new standard sets out in addition presentation and disclosure requirements to improve comparability between entities belonging to the same sector.
It measures insurance contracts on the basis of a General Model or a simplified version of such, called the Premium Allocation Approach ("PAA").
The main features of the General Model are:
The PAA approach involves the measuring of the liability for the residual coverage of a group of insurance contracts on the condition that, on initial recognition, the entity expects that this liability reasonably reflects an approximation of the General Model. Contracts with a coverage period of one year or less are automatically considered appropriate for the PAA approach. The simplifications from application of the PAA method do not apply to the valuation of liabilities for existing claims, which are measured with the General Model. However, it is necessary to discount these cash flows where it is expected that the balance will be paid or received within one year from the date on which the claim occurred.
The entity should apply the new standard to insurance contracts issued, including reinsurance contracts issued, reinsurance contracts held and also investment contracts with a discretionary participation feature (DPF).
The standard is effective from January 1, 2023, although advance application is permitted, only for entities applying IFRS 9 – Financial Instruments and IFRS 15 - Revenue from Contracts with Customers. The Directors do not expect this standard to have a significant impact on the Group consolidated financial statements.
• on May 7, 2021, the IASB published an amendment called "Amendments to IAS 12 Income Taxes: Deferred Tax related to Assets and Liabilities arising from a Single Transaction". The document clarifies how deferred taxes should be accounted for on certain transactions that can generate assets and liabilities of equal amounts, such as leases and decommissioning obligations. The amendments will be applicable from January 1, 2023, although advance application is permitted. The Directors do not expect this amendment to have a significant impact on the Group consolidated financial statements.
The values of Property, plant and equipment at June 30, 2021 are shown net of the accumulated depreciation provisions, as illustrated in the table below (Euro thousands).
The table illustrates the comparison between the balances in Property, plant and equipment of the Avio Group at June 30, 2021 and December 31, 2020.
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Values | Accumulated | Net book | Gross | Accumulated | Net book | |
| value | depreciation | value | value | depreciation | value | |
| Land | 14,669 | - | 14,669 | 14,669 | - | 14,669 |
| Buildings | 61,671 | (20,324) | 41,347 | 61,612 | (19,317) | 42,295 |
| Plant and machinery | 77,616 | (61,983) | 15,633 | 77,708 | (60,196) | 17,512 |
| Industrial and commercial equipment |
18,362 | (17,183) | 1,179 | 18,284 | (16,940) | 1,344 |
| Other assets | 11,462 | (8,564) | 2,898 | 11,208 | (8,069) | 3,139 |
| Assets in progress and advances | 39,810 | - | 39,810 | 33,040 | - | 33,040 |
| Total | 223,590 | (108,054) | 115,536 | 216,521 | (104,522) | 111,999 |
The changes between December 31, 2020 and June 30, 2021 in the gross values of property, plant and equipment are illustrated in the table below (Euro thousands):
| Gross values | 31/12/2020 | Increases | Decreases for disposals |
Reclassifications and other changes |
30/06/2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Land | 14,669 | - | - | - | 14,669 |
| Buildings | 61,612 | 59 | - | - | 61,671 |
| Plant and machinery | 77,708 | 437 | - | (529) | 77,616 |
| Industrial and commercial equipment | 18,284 | 44 | (5) | 39 | 18,362 |
| Other assets | 11,208 | 263 | (29) | 22 | 11,462 |
| Assets under development and payments on account |
33,040 | 6,301 | - | 469 | 39,810 |
| Total | 216,521 | 7,104 | (35) | - | 223,590 |
The increases in the first half-year of Euro 7,104 thousand mainly concerns:
Some plant, for a total of Euro 529 thousand, which was included among plant and equipment at December 31, 2020, but which was not yet operational and so not yet subject to depreciation at June 30, 2021, has been moved to "Assets in progress and advances".
Between December 31, 2020 and June 30, 2021, the changes to accumulated depreciation were as follows (in Euro thousands):
| Gross values | 31/12/2020 | Increases | Decreases for disposals |
Reclassificatio ns and other changes |
30/06/2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Land | - | - | - | - | - |
| Buildings | (19,317) | (1,007) | - | - | (20,324) |
| Plant and machinery | (60,196) | (1,787) | - | - | (61,983) |
| Industrial and commercial equipment |
(16,940) | (245) | 2 | - | (17,183) |
| Other assets | (8,069) | (520) | 24 | - | (8,565) |
| Total | (104,522) | (3,559) | 26 | - | (108,055) |
The depreciation was calculated in relation to the estimated useful life and the obsolescence incurred by these assets.
This account is recognised following the adoption of IFRS 16 - Leases, published by the IASB on January 13, 2016 and obligatory from January 1, 2019.
The Group adopted the option provided for in IFRS 16:C3, which permits reference to be made to the conclusions reached in the past regarding the contracts previously identified as leases in application of IAS 17 and IFRIC 4. This option was applied to all contracts, as provided for in IFRS 16:C4.
This standard was applied utilising the modified retrospective approach. In particular, with regard to lease contracts previously classified as operating leases, the Group recognised the following:
The values of Right-of-use at June 30, 2021 are shown net of the accumulated depreciation provisions, as illustrated in the table below (Euro thousands).
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Values value |
Accumulated depreciation |
Net book value |
Gross value |
Accumulated depreciation |
Net book value |
||
| Land right-of-use | 2,570 | (214) | 2,356 | 2,570 | (143) | 2,427 | |
| Buildings right-of-use | 5,399 | (2,171) | 3,228 | 5,408 | (1,750) | 3,658 | |
| Plant and machinery right-of-use | 1,632 | (361) | 1,271 | 1,525 | (274) | 1,251 | |
| Other assets right-of-use | 3,117 | (1,426) | 1,691 | 3,053 | (1,180) | 1,873 | |
| Total | 12,718 | (4,172) | 8,546 | 12,556 | (3,347) | 9,209 |
Changes in the year were as follows:
The Increases in the period of Euro 682 thousand concerned:
The decreases of Euro 520 thousand concerned:
The accumulated depreciation of these rights in the first half of 2021 is reported below (in Euro thousands):
| Gross values | 31/12/2020 | Increases | Decreases for contract conclusion |
Reclassifications and other changes |
30/06/2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Land right-of-use | (143) | (71) | - | - | (214) |
| Buildings right-of-use | (1,750) | (602) | 180 | - | (2,171) |
| Plant and machinery right-of-use | (274) | (86) | - | - | (360) |
| Other assets right-of-use | (1,180) | (397) | 151 | - | (1,426) |
| Total | (3,347) | (1,156) | 331 | - | (4,172) |
The Right-of-use assets recognised in applying IFRS 16 mainly relate to the present values of the future payments under the following contracts:
The values of Investment property at June 30, 2021 are shown net of the accumulated depreciation provisions, as illustrated in the table below (Euro thousands).
The table illustrates the comparison between the balances in Investment property of the Avio Group at June 30, 2021 with December 31, 2020.
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Values | Accumulated Net book |
Gross | Accumulated | ||||
| value | depreciation value |
value | depreciation | book value |
|||
| Land | 1,834 | - | 1,834 | 1,834 | - | 1,834 | |
| Buildings & facilities | 2,378 | (1,111) | 1,267 | 2,378 | (1,075) | 1,303 | |
| Total | 4,212 | (1,111) | 3,101 | 4,212 | (1,075) | 3,137 |
Investment property refers to part of the land, buildings and facilities within the Colleferro industrial complex (Rome) owned by the subsidiary Se.co.sv.im. S.r.l., leased to third parties. This latter undertakes property management activities.
The changes between December 31, 2020 and June 30, 2021 in the gross values of investment property of the Avio Group are illustrated in the table below (Euro thousands):
| Gross values | 31/12/2020 | Increases | Decreases | Reclassifications and other changes |
30/06/2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Land | 1,834 | - | - | - | 1,834 | |
| Buildings & facilities | 2,378 | - | - | - | 2,378 | |
| Total | 4,212 | - | - | - | 4,212 |
Between December 31, 2020 and June 30, 2021, the changes to accumulated depreciation were as follows (in Euro thousands):
| Accumulated depreciation | 31/12/2020 | Depreciation | Utilisations | Reclassifications and other changes |
30/06/2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Land | - | - | - | - | - |
| Buildings & facilities | (1,075) | (36) | - | - | (1,111) |
| Total | (1,075) | (36) | - | - | (1,111) |
The depreciation in the period was calculated in relation to the estimated useful life and the obsolescence incurred by these assets.
.
The goodwill recognised at December 31, 2020 for an amount of Euro 61,005 thousand relates to the Purchase Price Allocation at March 31, 2017 commented upon in the Directors' Report.
As indicated in Note 2.7. Accounting policies", goodwill is not amortised but written down for impairments. The Group assesses the recoverability of goodwill at least annually, or more frequently where specific events and circumstances arise which may result in long-term value reductions, through impairment tests on each of the Cash Generating Units (CGU's). The CGU identified by the Group for the monitoring of goodwill coincides with the level of aggregation required by IFRS 8 - Operating segments, which for the Group is identified by the Space business alone.
Goodwill allocated to the Space CGU was subject to an impairment test at December 31, 2020, which indicated a recoverable value significantly in excess of the carrying amount of the net capital employed recognised to the financial statements at that date.
At June 30, 2021, the presence of impairment indicators was assessed; in the absence of these indicators, the value written to the financial statements was not submitted to additional recoverability checks.
The values of Intangible assets with definite life at June 30, 2021 are shown net of the accumulated amortisation provisions, as illustrated in the table below (Euro thousands).
The table illustrates the comparison between the balances in Intangible assets with definite life of the Avio Group at June 30, 2021 with December 31, 2020.
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gross values |
Accumulated amortisation |
Net book value |
Gross values |
Accumulated amortisation |
Net book value |
|
| Development costs - amortisable | 122,799 | (61,115) | 61,584 | 117,884 | (57,722) | 60,162 |
| Development costs - in progress | 28,967 | - | 28,967 | 28,070 | - | 28,070 |
| Total development costs | 151,666 | (61,115) | 90,551 | 145,954 | (57,722) | 88,232 |
| Assets from PPA 2017 - Programmes | 44,785 | (12,689) | 32,096 | 44,785 | (11,197) | 33,588 |
| Concessions, licenses, trademarks and similar rights |
10,583 | (8,192) | 2,391 | 10,439 | (7,579) | 2,860 |
| Other | 3,728 | (3,207) | 521 | 3,709 | (2,979) | 730 |
| Assets in progress and advances | 1,971 | - | 1,971 | 172 | - | 172 |
| Total | 212,733 | (85,203) | 127,531 | 205,059 | (79,477) | 125,582 |
The development costs being amortised primarily refer to design and testing costs relating to the P80, Z40 and P120 motors. Most development costs under completion refer to projects relating to the new liquid oxygen and methane motors.
The amortisation of these costs begins from the commencement of the commercial production of each individual programme, on a straight-line basis over their useful life, initially estimated based on the duration of the programmes to which they refer.
With reference to development costs in course of completion, which are not subject to amortisation as referring to programmes which have not yet commenced commercial production, recognition under intangible assets with definite useful lives (with prior verification of the absence of impairment) is supported by the profitability forecasts of the programmes.
Following the purchase price allocation process of the Avio Group by Space2 in March 2017, two intangible assets were identified relating to the Ariane and Vega aerospace programmes for a total of Euro 44,785 thousand.
The assets deriving from this allocation were measured at fair value based on the present value of the expected future benefits of the above aerospace programmes and amortised over a period of 15 years on the basis of the average useful life of the programmes.
Concessions, licenses, trademarks, patents and similar rights mainly include costs for the acquisition of software licenses and land rights costs.
The changes between December 31, 2020 and June 30, 2021 in the gross values of Intangible assets with definite life of the Avio Group are illustrated in the table below (Euro thousands):
| Gross values | 31/12/2020 | Increases | Decreases | Reclassifications and other changes |
30/06/2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Development costs - amortisable | 117,884 | - | - | 4,815 | 122,699 |
| Development costs - in progress | 28,070 | 5,712 | - | (4,815) | 28,967 |
| Total development costs | 145,954 | 5,712 | - | - | 151,666 |
| Assets from PPA 2017 - Programmes | 44,785 | - | - | - | 44,785 |
| Concessions, licenses, trademarks and similar rights |
10,439 | 144 | - | - | 10,583 |
| Other | 3,709 | 19 | - | - | 3,728 |
| Assets in progress and advances | 172 | 1,799 | - | - | 1,971 |
| Total | 205,059 | 7,674 | - | - | 212,733 |
The increases in H1 2021 of Intangible Assets with definite life of Euro 7,674 thousand, of which principally:
Between December 31, 2020 and June 30, 2021, the changes to accumulated depreciation were as follows (in Euro thousands):
| Accumulated amortisation | 31/12/2020 | Increases | Decreases | Reclassifications and other changes |
30/06/2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Development costs - amortisable Development costs - in progress |
(57,722) - |
(3,393) - |
- - |
- - |
(61,115) - |
| Total development costs | (57,722) | (3,393) | - | - | (61,115) |
| Assets from PPA 2017 - Programmes | (11,197) | (1,492) | - | - | (12,689) |
| Concessions, licenses, trademarks and similar rights |
(7,579) | (613) | - | - | (8,192) |
| Other | (2,979) | (228) | - | - | (3,207) |
| Total | (79,477) | (5,726) | - | - | (85,203) |
The investments held by the Avio Group at June 30, 2021 and December 31, 2020 follows (in Euro thousands).
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group share | Total | Group share |
Total | Change | |
| Subsidiaries | |||||
| - Servizi Colleferro – Consortium | 52.00% | 62 | 52.00% | 62 | - |
| Total non-consolidated subsidiaries | 62 | 62 | - | ||
| Companies under joint control | |||||
| - Europropulsion S.A. | 50.00% | 5,326 | 50.00% | 4,884 | 442 |
| Total companies under joint control | 5,326 | 4,884 | 442 | ||
| Associates | |||||
| - Termica Colleferro S.p.A. | 40.00% | 3,636 | 40.00% | 3,636 | - |
| - Other consortiums | 5 | 5 | - | ||
| Total associates | 3,641 | 3,641 | - | ||
| Other companies | |||||
| - Other companies | 525 | 524 | 1 | ||
| Total other companies | 525 | 524 | 1 | ||
| Total | 9,554 | 9,111 | 443 | ||
The changes between December 31, 2020 and June 30, 2021 in the investments are shown below (Euro thousands):
| 31/12/2020 | Increases | Decreases | Other changes |
30/06/2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subsidiaries | 62 | - | - | - | 62 |
| Companies under joint control | 4,884 | 442 | - | - | 5,326 |
| Associated companies | 3,641 | - | - | - | 3,641 |
| Other companies | 524 | 1 | - | - | 525 |
| Total | 9,111 | 443 | - | - | 9,554 |
The interest in Europropulsion S.A. has been classified among "Companies under joint control". The change in the period relating to this interest was due to measurement at equity, which resulted in an increase of Euro 442 thousand (due to the 50% share of profits accrued in H1 2021, amounting to Euro 884 thousand).
The investments in associated companies (including certain consortiums) are valued at acquisition or subscription cost, as these companies are not considered significant in relation to the Group financial position and also as non-operating companies. In addition, the valuation as per the equity method would not result in a significant effect compared to valuation at cost.
There are no significant restrictions in the capacity of the associated companies to transfer funds to the owners of the company, through payment of dividends, loans or advance repayments.
The investments in other companies are valued at cost.
The table below illustrates the non-current financial assets of the Avio Group at June 30, 2021 and at December 31, 2020 (in Euro thousands).
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shareholder loan to Termica Colleferro S.p.A. | 6,337 | 6,259 | 78 |
| 6,337 | 6,259 | 78 |
The account, amounting to Euro 6,337 thousand (Euro 7,440 thousand at nominal values), comprises the shareholder loan granted to the associated company Termica Colleferro S.p.A. together with the other shareholder SECI S.p.A., paid in order to ensure the long-term operational viability of this company in proportion to the share capital held; a similar contribution was made by the abovementioned majority shareholder. This loan is non-interest bearing and repayment is subordinate to the total settlement of the bank loans of the associate, maturing in 2027.
The increase in the period is due to measurement at amortised cost.
For additional information regarding Termica Colleferro S.p.A., see the specific paragraph "Other commitments" of section 5. " Commitments and risks".
The Avio Group's recognised deferred tax assets amount to Euro 78,119 thousand (Euro 77,975 thousand at December 31, 2020).
The amount recorded in the accounts represents the net balance of the deferred tax assets and liabilities calculated on the temporary differences between the value of assets and liabilities assumed for the purposes of the preparation of the financial statements and the respective values for fiscal purposes and the tax losses carried forward.
Deferred taxes are determined applying the tax rates which are expected to be applied in the period when the temporary differences will be reversed, or the benefits related to the tax losses will be utilised.
The summary of the temporary differences (deductible and assessable) and of the tax losses which resulted in the recognition of deferred tax assets and liabilities is illustrated in the table below with reference to the reporting date (Euro thousands):
| 30/06/2021 | |
|---|---|
| Gross deferred tax assets on temporary differences | |
| Temporary differences deriving from previous corporate operations | |
| Fiscal amortisation on previous goodwill whose tax benefits remain in the Group. Financial charges exceeding 30% of EBITDA |
7,491 37,723 |
| Temporary differences deriving from current corporate operations | |
| Provision for personnel charges, former employees and similar Other deductible temporary differences |
2,280 9,227 |
| Total gross deferred tax assets | 56,721 |
| Deferred tax liability on temporary differences | |
| Temporary differences deriving from previous corporate operations | |
| Amortisation intangible assets from PPA 2017 - Customer accreditation Tax effect R&D expenses First-Time Adoption |
(9,279) (1,359) |
| Temporary differences deriving from current corporate operations Other temporary assessable differences |
(1,174) |
| Total gross deferred tax liabilities | (11,812) |
| Net deferred tax assets/(liabilities) | 44,909 |
| Deferred tax assets on tax losses | 68,996 |
| Deferred tax assets not recorded | (35,786) |
| Net deferred tax assets (liabilities) recorded | 78,119 |
Deferred tax assets on temporary differences and on tax losses were recorded in the accounts for the amounts whose future recovery was considered probable, on the basis of forecast assessable income, as well as based on a projection of these forecasts over a subsequent time horizon considered representative of the life cycle of the business equal to 15 years.
This time period considered representative of the life cycle of the business was estimated also taking into account the meeting with the Ministers of the Member Countries of ESA held in December 2014,
which resulted in the signing in August 2015 of agreements with ESA relating to the development of the new Ariane 6 launcher and the evolution of the VEGA launcher within the VEGA C programme which provides for the development and construction of the new "P120" motor, and the meeting of the Ministers of the Member Countries of ESA held on December 1, 2016 and on December 2, 2016 which confirmed the above-mentioned development programmes and gave the go ahead for the long-term development programme of the motor and of the Upper Stage of the Vega E, or rather the next step in the evolution of the Vega launcher.
Deferred tax assets recognised to the financial statements mainly concern the future tax deductibility of the goodwill amortisation relating to the "Aviation" business unit (sold in 2013), the financial charges exceeding 30% of gross operating profit and the intangible assets for client accreditation redefined as part of the purchase price allocation of 2017, as commented upon previously, in addition to prior tax losses.
The table below illustrates other non-current assets at June 30, 2021 and December 31, 2020 (Euro thousands).
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 71,439 | 74,140 | (2,701) |
| 71,439 | 74,140 | (2,701) |
The breakdown of the account at the reporting date was as follows (Euro thousands):
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Receivables from the General Electric Group | 58,220 | 58,220 | - |
| Receivables from FCA Partecipazioni | 7,047 | 9,132 | (2,085) |
| Receivables from the Economic Development Ministry for disbursements pursuant to Law 808/85 - non-current portion |
5,474 | 6,078 | (604) |
| Guarantee deposits | 561 | 572 | (11) |
| Other non-current receivables | 137 | 138 | (1) |
| Total | 71,439 | 74,140 | (2,701) |
"Receivables from the General Electric Group", amounting to Euro 58,220 thousand, refers to the recharge to the General Electric Group of the charges arising from the settlement notice relating to registration, mortgage and cadastral taxes notified to the Company in July 2016 by the Tax Agency, in connection with the extraordinary transactions that led to the transfer of the AeroEngine business by the Avio Group to the General Electric Group in 2013. This receivable is recognised against an amount payable to the Treasury of like amount among non-current liabilities;
The recognition of the above-mentioned receivable from the General Electric Group is based on specific contractual provisions, according to which the latter is required to indemnify the Avio Group from any liability arising in connection with the AeroEngine business pertaining to the General Electric Group, including liabilities related to indirect taxes referable to the above-mentioned extraordinary transactions of 2013.
It should be noted that the afore-mentioned tax settlement notice is the subject of a dispute with the tax authorities, which in 2020 appealed to the Supreme Court of Cassation against the sentence with which, at the end of 2018, the Piedmont Regional Tax Commission fully accepted the appeal lodged by the Company. The Company appeared promptly in the proceedings with its own counterappeal and simultaneous cross-appeal, reaffirming the soundness of its arguments. The Supreme Court has not yet set a date for the hearing.
With regard to the litigation in question, and in particular the subject-matter of the dispute, relating to the anti-avoidance provision of Article 20, headed "Interpretation of acts", of Presidential Decree
No. 131/1986 ("Consolidated Registration Tax Act"), mention should be made of some circumstances post-dating the service of the payment notice. Specifically:
For further information, reference should be made to Note "3.24. Other non-current liabilities" and to the section "Legal and tax disputes and contingent liabilities" in the Explanatory Notes.
The account "Receivables from FCA Partecipazioni" refers to the settlement dated August 2, 2019 between the Avio Group and FCA Partecipazioni S.p.A. regarding environmental charges. Based on this agreement FCA Partecipazioni S.p.A. committed to recognise to the Avio Group a total amount of Euro 19.9 million, of which Euro 11.3 million for reclamation activities and environmental restoration to be paid in the 2019-2023 period and Euro 8.6 million for post-operative management and maintenance to be paid in the 2019-2048 period, against the lapsing of the contractual guarantees which the company provided in the past to the Avio Group.
This agreement therefore entailed the recognition, on the transaction date (2019), of a discounted receivable from FCA Partecipazioni S.p.A. of Euro 16.5 million, divided into within and beyond 12 months according to the due dates of the expected collections, and a corresponding charges provision of Euro 16.9 million.
The decrease of Euro 2,085 thousand is due to the reclassification to short-term of the portion of the receivable due within 12 months.
"Receivables from the Economic Development Ministry for disbursements pursuant to Law 808/85 non-current portion", amounting to Euro 5,474 thousand, refer to the discounted value of the noncurrent portion of the concessions granted by the Ministry for Economic Development under the rules of Law 808/85.
These receivables are recorded in the accounts at the value resulting from the application of the amortised cost method, calculated utilising the effective interest rate, and are increased due to the effect of the accumulated amortisation of the difference between the initial value and the actual cash amounts and booked in the accounts under "Financial income".
The amounts to be received within 12 months are classified under "Other current assets" (Note 3.15).
The table below illustrates inventories at June 30, 2021 and December 31, 2020 (Euro thousands).
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inventories | 150,030 | 140,309 | 9,721 |
| 150,030 | 140,309 | 9,721 |
The movements in the year are shown below (in Euro thousands):
| 31/12/2020 | Change | 30/06/2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raw materials, ancillaries and consumables Raw material, ancillary and consumables obsolescence provision |
47,432 | 6,064 | 53,496 |
| (2,374) | (152) | (2,526) | |
| Raw material, ancillary and consumables - net value | 45,058 | 5,912 | 50,970 |
| Products in work-in-progress | 5,275 | 2,293 | 7,568 |
| Provision for the write-down of work in progress | - | - | - |
| Products in work-in-progress - net value | 5,275 | 2,293 | 7,568 |
| Finished products and other inventories | 3,261 | - | 3,261 |
| Finished products and other inventories obsolescence provision |
(2,119) | - | (2,119) |
| Finished products and other inventories - net value | 1,142 | - | 1,142 |
| Advances to suppliers | 88,834 | 1,516 | 90,350 |
| 140,309 | 9,721 | 150,030 |
The increase in inventories relates to provisioning needed in order to support expected future production levels.
Advances to suppliers refers to payments to subcontractors made on the basis of interim progress reports. This item also includes advances paid on the signing of contracts. The change during the year reflects ordinary business cycle dynamics.
Production and research and development on orders are presented in the financial statements in two separate accounts: "Contract work-in-progress" and "Advances from clients for contract work-inprogress".
"Contract work-in-progress", recognised to the assets section of the Balance Sheet, includes the net balance of production orders and research and development for which, on the basis of analysis carried out by individual order, the gross value of contract work-in-progress is higher at the reporting date than the amount of advances received from clients.
"Advances from clients for contract work-in -progress", recognised to the liabilities section of the Balance Sheet, includes the net balance of production orders and research and development for which, on the basis of analysis carried out by individual order, the value of the advances received from clients is higher at the reporting date than the gross value of contract work-in-progress.
Contract work-in-progress is measured on the advancement of the production orders and research and development in accordance with the percentage of completion method based on the ratio between the costs incurred and the total estimated costs for the entire project.
The gross value of contract work-in-progress and advances received from clients is as follows (in Euro thousands):
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contract work in progress | 409,193 | 334,860 | 74,333 |
| Advances for contract work-in-progress | (562,725) | (477,871) | (84,854) |
| Net total | (153,532) | (143,011) | (10,521) |
The table below summarises the contract work-in-progress relating to the projects where the gross value is higher than the advances collected; these works are therefore recorded for the net value under assets in the Consolidated Balance Sheet (Euro thousands):
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contract work-in-progress (gross) | 1,136,747 | 1,045,285 | 91,462 |
| Advances for contract work-in-progress (gross) | (727,554) | (710,425) | (17,129) |
| Contract work-in-progress (net) | 409,193 | 334,860 | 74,333 |
The table below summarises the contract work-in-progress relating to the projects where the gross value is lower than the advances collected; these works are therefore recorded for the net value under liabilities in the Consolidated Balance Sheet (Euro thousands):
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contract work-in-progress (gross) Advances for contract work-in-progress (gross) |
885,608 (1,448,333) |
950,265 (1,428,136) |
(64,657) (20,197) |
| Advances for contract work-in-progress (net) | (562,725) | (477,871) | (84,854) |
The Avio Group is entitled to the research and development tax credits provided for in Decree-Law No. 145 of December 23, 2013, converted, with modifications, by Law No. 9 of February 21, 2014, as amended by Law No. 232 of December 11, 2016 (the "2017 Finance Act") and by the 2019 Finance Act (Art. 1, paragraphs 70-72, of Law No. 145 of December 30, 2018), on the basis of research and development services commissioned by the European Space Agency. These benefits are recognised to the income statement based on the advancement of the research and development on long-term orders which are part of the contract work-in-progress.
The multi-year projects mainly concern those relating to the Vega C and Vega E future generation launchers and the recognition of the economic benefits shall be made over the duration of the orders and from the effective advancement of the orders, calculated on the basis of the relative costs incurred.
This interim financial report does not include the research and development tax credits related to 2021, the analysis of which, for the purposes of recognition, may be carried out more fully at the end of 2021.
The table below illustrates trade receivables at June 30, 2021 and December 31, 2020 (Euro thousands).
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trade receivables | 4,533 | 2,175 | 2,358 |
| 4,533 | 2,175 | 2,358 |
The breakdown of trade receivables at the reporting date is shown below (Euro thousands):
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Receivables from third parties | 3,214 | 561 | 2,653 |
| Receivables from associates and jointly controlled companies |
762 | 1,028 | (265) |
| 3,976 | 1,589 | 2,388 | |
| Receivables from associates and jointly controlled companies beyond one year |
557 | 586 | (29) |
| 557 | 586 | (29) | |
| Total | 4,533 | 2,175 | 2,359 |
The nominal value of receivables from third parties was adjusted by a doubtful debt provision of Euro 483 thousand in order to reflect their fair value.
The breakdown of the account is shown below (Euro thousands):
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross value | 3,697 | 1,044 | (2,653) |
| less: doubtful debt provision | (483) | (483) | 0 |
| Total | 3,214 | 561 | (2,653) |
The principal receivables are due from ArianeGroup and the European Space Agency (ESA).
The breakdown of the account is shown below (Euro thousands):
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Europropulsion S.A. | 364 | 566 | (202) |
| Servizi Colleferro S.C.p.A. | 89 | 80 | 9 |
| Potable Water Services Consortium | 181 | 158 | 23 |
| Termica Colleferro S.p.A. due within one year | 128 | 224 | (96) |
| 762 | 1,028 | (266) | |
| Termica Colleferro S.p.A. due beyond one year | 557 | 586 | (29) |
| 557 | 586 | (29) | |
| Total | 1,319 | 1,614 | (295) |
The table below illustrates cash and cash equivalents at June 30, 2021 and December 31, 2020 (Euro thousands).
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash and cash equivalents | 88,020 | 124,666 | (36,646) |
| Total | 88,020 | 124,666 | (36,646) |
Cash and cash equivalents mainly concerning balances on bank current accounts. Reference should be made to the Cash flow statement with regards to the movements in the period.
The table below illustrates tax receivables at June 30, 2021 and December 31, 2020 (Euro thousands).
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current tax receivables | 25,628 | 33,094 | (7,466) |
| Total | 25,628 | 33,094 | (7,466) |
The following table shows the net changes by type of tax credit and tax (amounts in thousands of euro):
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| VAT receivables | 19,673 | 26,217 | (6,544) |
| Research and development tax credit (year 2020) | 1,563 | 1,563 | - |
| Receivables from tax authorities | 4,155 | 5,078 | (923) |
| EU VAT receivables | 237 | 236 | 1 |
| Total | 25,628 | 33,094 | (7,466) |
The reduction in the first half of the year of Euro 7,466 thousand essentially concerns the collection of the VAT receivables previously requested for repayment of Euro 8,557 thousand, in part offset by the amount of VAT receivables arising in the period.
VAT receivables, for Euro 19,673 thousand, include:
The maturation of the VAT relates to the fact that the parent company's Avio S.p.A. main client is the European Space Agency (ESA) for the development of launchers and Ariane Group for their production/distribution, in addition to the jointly-controlled company Europropulsion for both of these phases. In particular, for the transactions carried out with these parties, Avio S.p.A. acts as a habitual exporter for VAT purposes, as the VAT exempt system for exports and the exemption for transactions treated as exports and the intra-EU supplies of goods are applicable to these transactions. This circumstance entails the quasi-absence of VAT payables on the sales transactions undertaken by the Company. On the other hand, the Company however has Italian suppliers whose supplies - further to the amounts for which declarations of intent are issued due to the fact that Avio S.p.A. is a habitual exporter - result in the recognition of VAT receivables.
The research and development tax credit was introduced by Article 3 of Legislative Decree No. 145 of December 23, 2013, converted with amendments, by law No. 9 of February 21, 2014, and subsequently amended by:
Under the original rules, introduced by Decree-Law No. 145/2013 and in effect until prior to the amendments applied by the 2019 Budget Law and the 2020 Budget Law, the tax credit in question:
may be accessed also where research and development is contracted to third parties. In this case, the break may be utilised by the commissioner, if resident in Italy;
was automatically accessible, without the need for a request for concession or administrative authorisation, and without complying with the obligation for cost certification by the independent auditing firm;
Due to the changes introduced by 2017 Budget Law, under the new paragraph 1-bis of Decree-Law No. 145/2013, introduced with effect from the 2017 tax year, the tax credit was, among other issues, extended also to costs incurred for research and development carried out by companies residing in Italy, as agents, on behalf of overseas principals.
Due to the 2019 Budget Law:
Lastly, the 2020 Budget Law significantly modified the tax relief for research and development activities as follows:
c) a tax credit for the design and styling activities carried out by companies active in textiles, fashion, footwear, eyewear, jewellery, furniture and furnishings and ceramics to create and implement new products and samples.
In contrast to the previous R&D tax credit, for the new relief introduced by the 2020 Budget Law:
The same formalities established by the 2019 Budget Act for the previous R&D tax credit also apply to the new tax credits. These formalities include, for example, a report (i.e., certification) prepared by the independent auditors of the accounts attesting that the eligible expenses were effectively incurred and reflect the accounting documentation prepared by the company, in addition to an obligation for the beneficiaries to draft and retain a technical report on the purposes, contents and results of the eligible activities.
The H1 2021 income statement includes accruals relating to the effects on the income statement of the tax credits accrued in 2017, 2018 and 2019 according to the provisions of Article 3 of Decree-Law 145/2013, in effect until December 31, 2019.
In particular, the recognition of these accruals was due to the fact that the receivables in question were initially recorded in the account "Research and development tax credit" and recognised to the income statement in each period on an accruals basis, according to the differing types of costs supported, and on the basis of the percentage of completion of the contract work-in-progress giving rise to the costs against which the due receivable was calculated in the Income Statement accounts "Service costs" and "Change in contract work-in-progress".
The cited long-term orders are those concerning research and development projects which principally include the future generation Vega C and Vega E launchers, which are part of the wider Vega launchers family.
This benefit, as matured against such research and development, was recognised to the income statement on the basis of the advancement of these activities, proportionate to the advancement of the costs incurred for the long-term orders to which the benefit refers.
This interim financial report does not include the recognition of research and development tax credits related to the current year. This tax credit, established under the 2020 Italian Budget, will be recognised at December 31, 2021, upon completion of the analyses that need to be done in relation to the full year. The tax credit in question, when recognised at year end, will refer to inhouse research. At the date of this interim report, the credit accrued at December 31, 2020, on the basis of the 2020 Budget in the amount of Euro 1,563 thousand and also related to in-house research, has not yet been used.
Tax receivables of Euro 4,155 thousand (Euro 5,078 thousand at December 31, 2020), principally concerned:
The EU VAT receivables relate to inter-EU transactions and amount to Euro 237 thousand (Euro 236 thousand at December 31, 2020).
The table below illustrates other current assets at June 30, 2021 and December 31, 2020 (Euro thousands).
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Other current assets | 11,751 | 8,954 | 2,797 |
| Total | 11,751 | 8,954 | 2,797 |
The breakdown of the account is shown in the table below (Euro thousands):
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Economic Development Ministry for disbursements pursuant to Law 808/85 |
3,839 | 3,212 | 627 |
| Receivables from FCA Partecipazioni | 2,168 | 2,168 | - |
| Employee receivables | 1,206 | 1,033 | 173 |
| Prepayments and accrued income | 2,268 | 986 | 1,282 |
| Grants/subsidies receivable | 1,393 | 1,098 | 295 |
| Other debtors | 410 | 415 | (5) |
| Receivables from associated company Consorzio Servizi Acqua Potabile |
18 | 4 | 14 |
| Social security institutions | 449 | 38 | 411 |
| Total | 11,751 | 8,954 | 2,797 |
Receivables from the "Economic Development Ministry for disbursements pursuant to Law 808/85", amounting to Euro 3,839 thousand, refer to the discounted value of the sums to be disbursed by the Ministry for Economic Development for projects qualifying as functional to national security or projects with common European interest, subsequent to the approval by the Interministerial
Committee for the Economic Programming of Resolution No. 28 of March 22, 2006 enacting directives for the aerospace sector, which will be received in the next year.
The portion which will be received beyond 12 months is classified in the account "Other non-current assets" (Note 3.9).
Regarding the "Receivables from FCA Shares", reference should be made to the comments at paragraph "3.9 Other non-current assets" in these notes. During the period, the instalment recognised as short-term at December 31, 2020 was received and the receivable for the new instalment due within 12 months recognised to this account, which is of an equal amount as the previous instalment.
With regards to the increase of Prepayments and accrued income of Euro 1,282 thousand on December 31, 2020, this mainly concerns prepayments, as the differing types of costs, such as for example software licenses, are invoiced at the beginning of the year and have one-year validity. Due to this fact, the prepayments made in the first half of the year are significant.
The breakdown of the Shareholders' equity at June 30, 2021 follows (in Euro thousands):
| Share capital |
Share Premium Reserve |
Treasury shares |
Unavailable reserve for treasury shares in portfolio |
Legal reserve |
Actuarial gains/(losses) reserve |
Retained earnings |
Group result |
Total Group equity |
Non controlling interest equity |
Total Equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 90,964 | 135,176 | (9,080) | 9,080 | 18,193 | (4,140) | 54,265 | (2,450) | 292,008 | 7,203 | 299,211 |
| 90,964 | 135,176 | (9,080) | 9,080 | 18,193 | (4,140) | 54,265 | (2,450) | 292,008 | 7,203 | 299,211 |
The share capital of the parent company Avio S.p.A. amounts to Euro 90,964,212 at June 30, 2021; the share capital is entirely subscribed and paid-in.
This share capital derives from the aggregation:
The share capital at June 30, 2021 comprised 26,359,346 ordinary shares.
The share premium reserve, originally totalling Euro 144,256 thousand, is restricted for the value of the treasury shares acquired. At June 30, 2021, the available value of the share premium reserve
was Euro 135,175 thousand, as treasury shares for a value of Euro 9,080 thousand had been acquired at that date.
The breakdown of other reserves is as follows (Euro thousands):
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Actuarial gains/(losses) reserve | (4,140) | (4,342) | 202 |
| Legal reserve | 18,193 | 18,193 | - |
| Treasury shares acquired | (9,080) | (9,080) | - |
| Unavailable treasury shares purchase reserve | 9,080 | 9,080 | - |
| Total | 14,053 | 13,851 | 202 |
The account includes:
Non-controlling interests relate to the share of the equity in Spacelab S.p.A and Regulus S.A consolidated under the line-by-line method, as illustrated below (in Euro thousands):
| 30/06/2021 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consolidated companies | % Non-controlling Capital and interests Reserves |
Profit/(loss) | Equity non controlling Interests |
||
| Spacelab S.p.A. | 30.00% | 1,201 | (15) | 1,186 | |
| Regulus S.A. | 40.00% | 5,993 | 23 | 6,017 | |
| 7,194 | 9 | 7,203 |
The movement in the account between December 31, 2020 and June 30, 2021 is reported below (in Euro thousands):
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-current financial liabilities | 27,000 | 32,000 | (5,000) |
| Total | 27,000 | 32,000 | (5,000) |
The account concerns two loans agreed with the European Investment Bank (EIB):
The two loans will support the planned development of new technologies in the field of space propulsion systems in view of the offering of the new products for the Ariane 6 and Vega-C programs and the expansion of industrial capacity at the Colleferro facility required to meet the Company's production volume targets for the coming years.
The decrease of Euro 5,000 thousand relates to the short-term reclassification:
The amount of the loan to be paid over the short-term, totalling Euro 10 million, is therefore recognised under item "3.26. Current financial liabilities."
These two loans are not supported by guarantees and stipulate the application of covenants (Gross Financial Debt/EBITDA, Gross Financial Debt/Equity, EBITDA/net financial charges), among other covenants. To-date, these covenants have been complied with.
Hedging derivatives have not been agreed on these loans.
Following the application of IFRS 16, the breakdown of the related non-current financial liabilities is shown below (in Euro thousands):
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-current financial liabilities for leasing | 4,849 | 4,543 | 306 |
| Total | 4,849 | 4,543 | 306 |
The breakdown of these financial liabilities is as follows (Euro thousands):
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-current financial liabilities to the associate Termica Colleferro S.p.A. as per IFRS 16 |
1,116 | 1,109 | 8 |
| Non-current financial liabilities to third parties as per IFRS 16 |
3,733 | 3,434 | 299 |
| Total | 4,849 | 4,543 | 306 |
The financial liabilities to the associate Termica Colleferro S.p.A. relate to the lease of the electroduct and relative electrical infrastructure at the combined cycle co-generation thermo-electrical station owned by the said associate.
With regards to the financial liabilities to third parties, these essentially concern:
The account relates to post-employment benefits and other long-term benefits.
The means for accruing these benefits varies according to the legal, fiscal and economic conditions of each State in which the Group operates. These benefits are generally based on remuneration and years of employee service. The obligations refer to employees in service.
Group companies guarantee post-employment benefits for employees both through contributions to external funds and through defined benefit plans.
In the case of defined contribution plans, the Group pays the contributions to public or private insurance institutions based on legal or contractual obligations. With the payment of contributions the companies fulfil their obligations. The payables for contributions to be paid at the reporting date are included in the account "Other current liabilities" and the cost for the period matures based on the service period of the employee and recorded in the income statement account "Personnel expenses".
Defined benefit plans are represented by unfunded plans, principally provided by third party funds, present in the Italian companies of the Group, of the leaving indemnity provision and of the special loyalty bonus indemnity, payable on departure to the employees which have matured the required number of years' service. The value of the liabilities recorded in the accounts for these institutions is calculated on an actuarial basis, utilising the projected unit credit method.
The leaving indemnity provision relates to the obligation for the amount to be paid to employees on the termination of employment, pursuant to the provisions of Article 2120 of the Civil Code. The regulations of this provision were modified by the 2007 Finance Act and subsequent Decrees and Regulations. Specifically, for the companies with an average number of employees not lower than fifty, the portion of leaving indemnity matured subsequent to January 1, 2007 is, on the choice of the employee, either transferred to a complementary pension fund or to the INPS treasury fund. Consequently, for the companies of the Group with a number of employees not below fifty, the portion of the employee leaving indemnity matured subsequent to this date is treated as a defined contribution plan, as the obligation of the Group is represented exclusively by the payment to the complimentary pension fund or to INPS, while the liability existing at December 31, 2006 continues to be treated as a defined benefit plan to be valued in accordance with actuarial methods. For the companies of the Group with a number of employees below fifty, the portion matured in the year continues to be accrued to the company leaving indemnity provision, unless specific choices are made voluntary by the individual employees.
The Group also recognises to employees other long-term benefits issued on the reaching of a fixed number of years of service. In this instance, the value of the obligation recognised to the financial statements reflects the probability that the payment will be issued and the duration for which payment will be made. The value of these liabilities recorded in the accounts are calculated on an actuarial basis, utilising the "projected unit credit" method.
The Group mainly has "unfunded" defined benefit plans, principally comprising the leaving indemnity provision of the Italian companies.
The provisions are broken down as follows (in Euro thousands):
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| - Defined benefit plans: | |||
| Post-employment benefit | 4,055 | 4,166 | (111) |
| Other defined benefit plans | 2,656 | 2,988 | (332) |
| 6,711 | 7,154 | (443) | |
| - Other long-term benefits | 4,157 | 4,107 | 50 |
| Total employee benefit provisions | 10,868 | 11,261 | (393) |
| of which: | |||
| - Italy | 8,905 | 9,525 | (620) |
| - Other Countries | 1,963 | 1,736 | 227 |
| 10,868 | 11,261 | (393) |
The following table presents the principal changes in the employee benefit provisions during the period (in Euro thousands):
| Defined benefit plans |
Other long-term employee benefits |
Total employee benefit provisions |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Values at 31/12/2020 | 7,154 | 4,107 | 11,261 |
| Financial charges/(income) | (15) | (0) | (15) |
| Actuarial (gains)/losses in income statement | - | (93) | (93) |
| Actuarial (gains)/losses in comprehensive income statement |
(292) | - | (292) |
| Pension cost current employees | 65 | 341 | 406 |
| Other movements | - | (113) | (113) |
| Benefits paid | (201) | (85) | (286) |
| At 30/06/2021 | 6,711 | 4,157 | 10,868 |
The table below illustrates the principal assumptions utilised for the actuarial calculation:
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | |
|---|---|---|
| Discount rate | 0.09% | -0.17% |
| Expected salary increases | 2.14% | 2.14% |
| Inflation rate | European zero-coupon inflation-indexed curve Swap at 31.05.2021 |
European zero-coupon inflation-indexed curve Swap at 31.12.2020 |
| Average employee turnover rate | 4.75% | 4.74% |
Securities issued by corporate issuers with "AA" ratings were utilised for the calculation of the present value, with the presumption that this class identifies a high rating level within a range of "Investment Grade" securities and therefore excluding more risky securities. The market curve utilised was a "Composite" curve which reflects the market conditions at the valuation date for securities issued by companies belonging to various sectors (including Utility, Telephone, Financial, Bank and Industrial). In relation to the geographical area, reference was made to the Eurozone.
The table below illustrates provisions for risks and charges at June 30, 2021 and December 31, 2020 (Euro thousands).
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Provisions for risks and charges | 27,463 | 31,734 | (4,271) |
| Total | 27,463 | 31,734 | (4,271) |
The breakdown of the provisions for risks and charges at June 30, 2021 is presented below (Euro thousands):
| 30/06/2021 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Current portion |
Non-current portion |
Total | |
| Provision for variable remuneration Provision for legal and environmental risks and charges Provision for contractual and commercial risks and charges |
3,202 2,553 377 |
2,457 16,452 2,422 |
5,659 19,005 2,799 |
| Total | 6,132 | 21,331 | 27,463 |
These provisions include:
The movements in current and non-current provisions in H1 2021 are shown below (amounts in Euro thousands):
| 31/12/2020 | Provisions | Other changes |
Utilisation s |
Releases | 30/06/2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Provision for variable remuneration |
8,732 | 2,780 | - | (5,853) | - | 5,659 |
| Provision for legal and environmental risks and charges |
19,330 | - | 84 | (409) | - | 19,005 |
| Provision for contractual and commercial risks and charges |
3,673 | 66 | - | - | (940) | 2,799 |
| Total | 31,735 | 2,846 | 84 | (6,262) | (940) | 27,463 |
The main changes in the first half of the year were:
• the provisions for variable remuneration were utilised for Euro 5,853 thousand, in consideration of the bonuses paid to employees for the achievement of individual and company objectives. This account concerned for Euro 4,642 thousand the payment of ordinary annual result bonuses and for Euro 1,211 thousand a tranche of the long-term incentive plan for top managers. The provision of Euro 2,780 thousand mainly relates to
variable remuneration which will be paid at the beginning of 2022, on the basis of the achievement of individual and company objectives for the year 2021, in addition to the aforementioned long-term incentive plan for senior Group managers;
The table below illustrates the account at June 30, 2021 and December 31, 2020 (Euro thousands).
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-current liabilities | 123,325 | 127,840 | (4,515) |
| Total | 123,325 | 127,840 | (4,515) |
| In detail, the changes in the item were as follows: | |||
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
| Tax liabilities Payables to the Tax Authorities for registration, mortgage and land tax relating to the corporate operations which in 2013 resulted in the sale of the company GE Avio S.r.l. (containing the assets of the AeroEngine sector of the Avio Group) to the General Electric Group. |
58,220 | 58,220 | - |
| Other tax payables | 2,832 | 5,126 | (2,295) |
| 61,052 | 63,346 | (2,295) | |
| Liabilities relating to Law 808/85 Payables to the Economic Development Ministry (MiSE) for disbursements pursuant to Law 808/85 (rules pre 2007) - portion beyond one year |
42,051 | 42,051 | - |
| Deferred income on disbursements pursuant to Law 808/85 (post 2007) - beyond one year |
17,629 | 19,781 | (2,152) |
| Payables to MiSE for disbursements pursuant to Law 808/85 (rules as per MiSE Decree 3/07/2015) - portion beyond one year |
1,310 | 1,301 | 9 |
| Deferred income on disbursements pursuant to Law 808/85 (rules as per MiSE Decree 3/07/2015) - portion beyond one year |
483 | 483 | - |
| 61,473 | 63,616 | (2,143) | |
| Payables due to MiSE for other subsidies | 104 | 122 | (18) |
| Other payables | 137 | 137 | - |
| Deferred income | 559 | 619 | (60) |
| Total | 123,325 | 127,840 | (4,515) |
The account, amounting to Euro 58,220 thousand, refers to the settlement notice received in July 2016 from the Tax Agency relating to registration, mortgage and land tax for the above-mentioned amount, relating to the corporate operations which in 2013 resulted in the sale of the company GE Avio S.r.l. (containing the assets of the AeroEngine sector of the Avio Group) to the General Electric Group. Simultaneously a receivable was recorded from the General Electric Group for a similar amount.
The recognition of the above-mentioned receivable from the General Electric Group is based on specific contractual clauses in which this latter must indemnify Avio with reference to any liabilities which should arise in relation to indirect taxes concerning the above-mentioned operations, providing Avio the sums requested by the Tax Office within the time period for the payments.
It should be noted that the afore-mentioned tax settlement notice is the subject of a dispute with the tax authorities, which in 2020 appealed to the Supreme Court of Cassation against the sentence with which, at the end of 2018, the Piedmont Regional Tax Commission fully accepted the appeal lodged by the Company. The Company appeared promptly in the proceedings with its own counterappeal and simultaneous cross-appeal, reaffirming the soundness of its arguments. The Supreme Court has not yet set a date for the hearing.
With regard to the litigation in question, and in particular the subject-matter of the dispute, relating to the anti-avoidance provision of Article 20, headed "Interpretation of acts", of Presidential Decree No. 131/1986 ("Consolidated Registration Tax Act"), mention should be made of some circumstances post-dating the service of the payment notice. Specifically:
For further information, reference should be made to Note "3.9. Other non-current liabilities" and to the section "Legal and tax disputes and contingent liabilities" in the Explanatory Notes.
This account, which amounted to Euro 2,832 thousand, refers, in particular, to:
This settlement stipulates the payment in 20 quarterly instalments of the taxes only, without penalties and interest.
This account (Euro 42,051 thousand) comprises the payables to the Economic Development Ministry relating to the disbursements, received pursuant to Law 808/85 and subsequent modifications and supplementations, undertaken for the promotion of research and development activities, including studies, tests and design relating to new programmes and other activities, in the aerospace industry. These sums are non-interest bearing and must be reimbursed in the period in which the revenues are generated from the programmes to which they refer. The payables are recorded at their nominal value.
This payable concerning the grants as per Law 808/85 is subject to the relative provisions valid up to 2006.
In 2006 the enacting regulations of Law 808/85 were modified. In particular, a specific regulation was defined for the programmes subject to intervention by Law 808/85 considered as functional to national security or projects of common European interest, which provide for, in place of the restitution of the disbursements granted, the payment of rights relating to the sale of the products developed within the programmes. For the programmes not within the above-mentioned category, the obligation remains for the restitution without payment of interest.
It is considered, following detailed analysis undertaken also with the assistance of primary legal firms and as communicated to the Economic Development Ministry in previous years, that this new regulation is not applicable to the interventions undertaken prior to the adoption of Resolution No. 28/2006 of the Interministerial Committee for Economic Programming, in relation to the specific situation of the programmes subject to the interventions, and therefore, as during 2019 there were no mandatory changes to the regulations in force, there were no changes in the criteria utilised todate in the recognition in the accounts of the disbursements in question.
The account, amounting to Euro 17,629 thousand, represents the initial counter-entry of the receivable from the Economic Development Ministry against the grants pursuant to Law 808/85, relating to the projects qualifying as functional to national security or projects with common European interest, for the amount to be allocated to the income statement in future years, beyond one year, in correlation to the allocation of the costs against which the disbursements were granted.
Disclosure upon the payable to MiSE for disbursements as per Law 808/85 according to the ex MiSE Decree of 3/07/2015 of Euro 1,310 thousand is presented below.
With Economic Development Ministry Decree of July 3, 2015, the criteria and means for funding to promote and support aerospace research and development projects to consolidate and grow Italian technology and the sector's competitivity were defined.
The measures under the Decree concern zero-rate subsidised loans granted within the limits established by EU rules upon research, development and innovation.
The loans are repaid for 90% of the settlement amount through annual equal instalments over the issue duration and however for a period of not less than ten years, beginning from the year subsequent to the final disbursement. The remaining 10% is an outright grant.
On February 19, 2018, the parent Avio was recognised the Settlement Decree by the Economic Development Ministry with regards to expenses incurred as part of a research and development project which falls within the scope of the above-mentioned July 3, 2015 Decree. The final disbursement under the plan reported in the Decree of February 19, 2018 is in 2029, with repayment therefore from the subsequent year (2030) until 2045.
Both the grants receivable from the Ministry for Economic Development and the subsequent reimbursements payable to the Ministry have been accounted for at amortized cost. The difference between the nominal and present values of the amount receivable and payable is recognized over the course of the benefit.
See above for an account of the rules for grants pursuant to Law 808/85 set out in the Decree of the Ministry for Economic Development of July 3, 2015.
The caption, which amounted to Euro 483 thousand, represents the difference between the nominal values and present values of the amount receivable and payable in respect of the aforementioned liquidation decree dated February 19, 2018.
This item, amounting to Euro 104 thousand, consists of payables due beyond one year to the Ministry of Economic Development relating to the disbursements provided for in Article 6 of the Decree of June 1, 2016, in accordance with Axis 1, action 1.1.3. of the National Operational Program "Enterprise and Competitiveness" 2014-2020 ERDF, received for the undertaking of the joint research and development project concerning "Additive Manufacturing by Mixing Elemental Powders". The payables are recorded at their discounted value.
The account amounting to Euro 137 thousand mainly includes the amounts received from the E. Amaldi Foundation by the subsidiary Spacelab S.p.A., which are paid in instalments.
The table below illustrates current financial liabilities at June 30, 2021 and December 31, 2020 (Euro thousands).
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current financial liabilities | 7,749 | 12,749 | (5,000) |
| Total | 7,749 | 12,749 | (5,000) |
The account comprises financial payables to the jointly-controlled company Europropulsion, relating to the mechanism of distributing to its shareholders the financial resources available to the joint venture, in accordance with a specific treasury management contract.
Following the application of IFRS 16, the breakdown of the related non-current financial liabilities is shown below (in Euro thousands):
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current financial liabilities for leasing | 1,791 | 2,676 | (885) |
| Total | 1,791 | 2,676 | (885) |
The breakdown of these financial liabilities is as follows (Euro thousands):
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current financial liabilities to the associate Termica Colleferro S.p.A. as per IFRS 16 |
73 | 148 | (75) |
| Current financial liabilities to third parties as per IFRS 16 | 1,718 | 2,528 | (810) |
| 1,791 | 2,676 | (885) |
The financial liabilities to the associate Termica Colleferro S.p.A. relate to the lease of the electroduct and relative electrical infrastructure at the combined cycle co-generation thermo-electrical station owned by the said associate.
With regards to the financial liabilities to third parties, these essentially concern:
• the concession of a specific area within the Salto di Quirra Inter-force Experimental Facility, where there are plans for a Space Propulsion Test Facility project for the construction of a Liquid Rocket Engine test bench and the production of carbon-carbon components;
The table below illustrates this account at June 30, 2021 and December 31, 2020 (Euro thousands).
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current portion of non-current financial payables | 10,056 | 10,063 | (7) |
| Total | 10,056 | 10,063 | (7) |
The account, which amounted to Euro 10,056 thousand, consists of:
The table below illustrates trade payables at June 30, 2021 and December 31, 2020 (Euro thousands).
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trade payables | 52,674 | 66,454 | (13,780) |
| Total | 52,674 | 66,454 | (13,780) |
Trade payables of the Avio Group at June 30, 2021 amount to Euro 52,674 thousand; this amount includes, for Euro 4,641 thousand, trade payables to associated companies, jointly controlled companies and non-consolidated subsidiaries as follows (Euro thousands):
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Europropulsion S.A. | 4,435 | 7,236 | (2,801) |
| Termica Colleferro S.p.A. | 36 | 445 | (409) |
| Potable Water Services Consortium | 63 | (120) | 183 |
| Servizi Colleferro S.C.p.A. | 107 | 3 | 104 |
| Total | 4,641 | 7,564 | (2,923) |
The table below illustrates current tax payables at June 30, 2021 and December 31, 2020 (Euro thousands).
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current income tax payables | 8,767 | 8,488 | 279 |
| Total | 8,767 | 8,488 | 279 |
The breakdown of current income taxes is shown below (in Euro thousands):
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| IRES payables | 794 | 667 | 127 |
| IRAP payables | 76 | 41 | 35 |
| Payables for withholding taxes | 1,254 | 1,142 | 112 |
| Other tax payables | 6,337 | 6,246 | 91 |
| Foreign income taxes | 306 | 392 | (86) |
| Total | 8,767 | 8,488 | 279 |
IRES payables from the tax consolidation total Euro 794 thousand, increasing Euro 127 thousand on December 31, 2020.
Payables for withholding taxes, amounting to Euro 1,254 thousand, refer to employee and consultant withholding taxes. This liability is in line with December 31, 2020.
Other Tax payables of Euro 6,337 thousand comprise the following items:
This settlement stipulates the payment in 20 quarterly instalments of the taxes only, without penalties and interest;
Payables for foreign taxes totalling Euro 306 thousand relate to the tax liabilities of the subsidiaries Regulus S.A., Avio Guyane S.A.S and Avio France S.A.S., operating in Kourou in French Guyana, a French overseas region and department in South America.
The table below illustrates other current liabilities at June 30, 2021 and December 31, 2020 (Euro thousands).
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Other current liabilities | 33,846 | 24,803 | 9,043 |
| Total | 33,846 | 24,803 | 9,043 |
The breakdown of the account at June 30, 2021 is shown in the table below (Euro thousands):
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Payables due to social security institutions | 3,711 | 3,622 | 89 |
| Employee payables | 10,645 | 6,969 | 3,676 |
| Other payables to third parties | 8,676 | 5,558 | 3,118 |
| Deferred income on disbursements pursuant to Law 808/85 - current portion |
2,152 | 1,079 | 1,073 |
| Other accrued liabilities and deferred income | 8,661 | 7,575 | 1,086 |
| Total | 33,846 | 24,803 | 9,043 |
The account concerns amounts to be paid, amounting to Euro 3,711 thousand, relating to company and employee contributions, in accordance with regulations in force.
Employee payables amount to Euro 10,645 thousand and include remuneration to be settled, in addition to vacations and other rights matured and not utilised. The increase on December 31, 2020 of Euro 3,676 thousand relates to the vacations matured and not yet taken, in addition to a number of variable remuneration items which are paid in July.
"Other payables to third parties" of Euro 8,676 thousand principally concern:
• liabilities towards the Italian Space Agency (ASI), minority shareholder of the subsidiary Spacelab S.p.A., for Euro 6,263 thousand, for dividends and the reimbursement of a portion of the capital subscribed.
By private agreement on June 29 between the parent company and buyer, Avio S.p.A., and the seller, the subsidiary Spacelab S.p.A., the price for the sale of the launchers business unit was adjusted.
The contractual agreement pertaining to this transaction, signed on March 1, 2018, included a consideration adjustment clause to take account of the fact that, at the date of sale of the business unit, the amount of the research and development tax credit accrued on the basis of the activities attributable to the unit subject to sale had not yet been definitively determined. Accordingly, on the date of sale of the unit, the parties decided to provide for the execution of a subsequent supplementary agreement to stipulate the adjustment of the price of sale of the business unit, to be entered into once any expected benefits of the above tax credit have been negotiated.
The period for negotiation between the parties to which the contract refers was on numerous occasions extended over the years, in view, firstly, of the complexity of the rules governing tax credits and, subsequently, of the many changes to the rules in question, in some cases with retroactive effect on the period prior to the sale of the business unit.
Finally, upon reaching the agreement for the price adjustment at the end of June, the parties set the price at Euro 8,529 thousand. This amount was financially settled by the parties on the date of the private agreement, i.e. on June 29.
Having defined the price adjustment and definitively quantified the gain recognised by Spacelab for the sale of the business unit, the board of directors of Spacelab on June 28 and the shareholders in an extraordinary session held on July 19 approved the distribution of dividends totalling Euro 18 million to the shareholders Avio and ASI. These dividends included the Euro 10 million approved by the shareholders of Spacelab on April 17, 2019, but not yet paid, awaiting the aforementioned price adjustment.
Of the Euro 18 million total, Euro 12.6 million is payable to Avio, the majority shareholder, while Euro 5.4 million is payable to ASI.
In the extraordinary session of July 19, the shareholders also approved the reduction in the subsidiary's capital in the amount of Euro 2,877 thousand for the excess capital beyond the current needs of the company.
This reduction in equity affected both the subsidiary's share capital, in the amount of Euro 1,680 thousand (going from Euro 4,680 thousand to Euro 3 million), and reserves, in the amount of Euro 1,197 thousand.
The Euro 2,877 thousand reduction in equity will result in a reimbursement to Avio in the amount of Euro 2,014 thousand and to ASI in the amount of Euro 863 thousand.
Therefore, summing the dividend distribution of Euro 18 million and the reduction in equity of Euro 2,877 thousand, the shareholders Avio and ASI will be paid a total of euro 20,877 thousand, with Euro 14,614 thousand going to Avio and Euro 6,263 thousand going to ASI.
The liabilities to both ASI and Avio are to be financially settled as follows: 50% upon completion of the procedures required to reduce share capital (reasonably by Q4 2021) and 50% by July 31, 2022;
The account, amounting to Euro 2,152 thousand (Euro 1,079 thousand at December 31, 2020), concerns the accrual of the contribution, with regards to the portion expected to be recognised as income to the income statement within the next 12 months.
This account, amounting to Euro 8,661 thousand (Euro 7,575 thousand at December 31, 2020), mainly refers to the deferment of commercial costs and grants to the following year.
Total revenues, comprising the change in contract work-in-progress and revenues from product sales and the provision of services, amounted to Euro 132,879 thousand. They amounted Euro 175,311 thousand in the first half of 2020.
The following table compares the two periods (in Euro thousands):
| H1 2021 | H1 2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenues from sales | 105,317 | 469 | 104,848 |
| Revenues from services | 4,055 | 3,365 | 690 |
| 109,372 | 3,834 | 105,538 | |
| Changes in contract work in progress | 23,507 | 171,477 | (147,970) |
| Total | 132,879 | 175,311 | (42,432) |
Group revenues in H1 2021 decreased Euro 42,432 thousand, as a result of the net negative impact of the following movements:
The increase in sales revenues of Euro 105,538 thousand follows the completion of orders for Euro 105,014 thousand and for Euro 303 thousand the sale of products.
The works completed concerned:
The reduction in revenues from the advancement of orders in progress, in the amount of Euro 147,970 thousand, is also the result of the factors described above in relation to the completion of orders, given that the orders completed in the previous period were presented as revenues from the ordinary advancement of orders under "Changes in contract work in progress".
As also reported in the "Group operating performance and financial and equity position" section of the Directors' Report, the overall decrease in revenues of Euro 42,432 thousand is mainly attributable to Vega's return-to-flight, which led to the postponement of activities and revenues relating to the development of the new Vega C launcher and to the Ariane programme for the planned phase-out of Ariane 5, partially offset by the future Ariane 6 programme.
The revenues from advancement include, in addition, the effect from the recognition of research and development credits for the years 2017, 2018 and 2019 under Article 3 of Legislative Decree No. 145/2013 and subsequent amendments in force until December 2019. This income amounted to Euro 1,124 thousand, while in the first half of 2020 totalled Euro 1,374 thousand. These credits, recognised to the extent they are considered recoverable and usable, are initially recorded in the account "Current tax receivables", with counter-entry to the income statement under "Service costs", and rediscounted to reflect their recognition to the Income Statement in each period on an accruals basis, according to the differing types of costs supported, in relation to the percentage of completion
of the contract work-in-progress giving rise to the costs against which the credit was calculated. The accrual has been recognised on the balance sheet under "Contract work in progress" and its release has been recognised on the income statement as "Changes in contract work in progress".
For further details on the revenue performance and the relative programmes, reference should be made to the "Group operating performance and financial and equity position" paragraph of the Directors' Report.
Other operating revenues for the two periods are compared below (in Euro thousands):
| H1 2021 | H1 2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Income from the release of provisions | 218 | 46 | 172 |
| Income for the portion recognised to the income statement of the disbursements as per Law 808/85 |
1,108 | 532 | 576 |
| Other income and operating grants | 1,112 | 1,472 | (360) |
| Over-accruals and similar in prior periods | 478 | 265 | 213 |
| Total | 2,916 | 2,315 | 601 |
In the first half of 2021, the account comprised:
The breakdown of the account is as follows (Euro thousands):
| H1 2021 | H1 2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purchase of raw materials | 42,384 | 48,469 | (6,085) |
| Change in inventories of raw materials | (4,831) | (7,917) | 3,086 |
| Total | 37,553 | 40,552 | (2,999) |
The breakdown of the account is as follows (in Euro thousands):
| H1 2021 | H1 2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Service costs | 58,894 | 85,069 | (26,175) |
| Rent, lease and similar costs | 300 | 309 | (9) |
| Total | 59,194 | 85,378 | (26,184) |
Service costs, amounting to Euro 59,194 thousand, in particular, include costs for activities carried out by co-producers, for consultancy and technical and professional services, for outsourcing, for maintenance and for temporary personnel.
The item "Service costs" includes the amount of the emoluments due to the Avio Group's governing bodies, relating to:
The breakdown of the account is as follows (in Euro thousands):
| H1 2021 | H1 2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wages and salaries | 28,151 | 29,621 | (1,470) |
| Social security expenses | 6,663 | 6,534 | 129 |
| Provision for variable remuneration | 2,472 | 753 | 1,719 |
| Other long-term benefits - current employees | 61 | 64 | (3) |
| Actuarial (gains)/losses recorded in P&L relating to other long-term benefits |
(163) | 58 | (221) |
| Provision for "Other defined benefit plans" | 1,973 | 1,584 | 389 |
| Total | 39,157 | 38,614 | 543 |
The table below illustrates, at Group level and divided by category, the average number of employees of the companies included in the consolidation scope:
| H1 2021 | H1 2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blue-collar | 384 | 393 | (10) |
| White-collar | 517 | 528 | (11) |
| Executives | 25 | 26 | (1) |
| Total | 925 | 947 | (22) |
The breakdown of the account is as follows (in Euro thousands):
| H1 2021 | H1 2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property, plant and equipment | 3,559 | 3,352 | 207 |
| Rights-of-use | 1,156 | 906 | 250 |
| Investment property | 35 | 33 | 2 |
| Intangible assets with definite life | 5,727 | 4,098 | 1,629 |
| Total | 10,477 | 8,389 | 2,088 |
The increase of Euro 2,088 thousand in amortisation on the comparative period is mainly due to Intangible assets with definite life, whose amortisation increased by Euro 1,629 thousand. This increase follows the beginning of amortisation in the second half of 2020 - and therefore reflected in the income statement of this H1 2021 and not in H1 2020 - of development costs capitalised on the Z40 and P120 motors.
Amortization of Intangible assets with a definite life primarily includes:
This account amounts to Euro 2,332 thousand (Euro 3,128 thousand in H1 2020) and mainly comprises the following items:
The account includes the effect of the application of the equity method for the valuation of the investment held in the jointly-controlled company Europropulsion S.A. These effects are recorded, in accordance with the option permitted by IFRS 11, under operating income and charges of the Group, based on the operating nature of the investment of the Avio Group in the company. The effect recorded with reference to the first half of 2021, amounting to income of Euro 442 thousand, corresponds to the share of the net result recorded by the aforementioned company in the period (in the absence of consolidation adjustments impacting the result of the jointly controlled company).
In the comparative H1 2020 period, the effect of the valuation of the investment in the above company was income of Euro 143 thousand.
The account relating to costs capitalised for internally constructed assets, amounting to Euro 7,277 thousand (Euro 3,961 thousand in H1 2020), includes the costs for the internal construction of intangible assets, and to a lesser extent, tangible assets, recorded under assets in the Balance Sheet.
The account comprises the capitalisations of:
The breakdown of the account is as follows (Euro thousands):
| H1 2021 | H1 2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interest income on tax credits collected | 76 | - | 76 |
| Financial income from amortised cost | 185 | 130 | 55 |
| Other financial income | 8 | - | 8 |
| 269 | 130 | 139 | |
| Realised exchange gains | 129 | 246 | (117) |
| Unrealised exchange gains | (50) | (29) | (21) |
| 79 | 217 | (138) | |
| Total | 348 | 347 | 1 |
Financial income of Euro 348 thousand is in line with the comparative period. The account mainly comprises:
Realised exchange gains arise on the collection of receivables and settlement of payables in foreign currencies.
Unrealised exchange losses relate to the period-end translation of receivables and payables in foreign currencies.
The breakdown of the account is as follows (Euro thousands):
| H1 2021 | H1 2020 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interest on EIB loans | 182 | 219 | (37) |
| Interest on other payables | 14 | 305 | (291) |
| Discounting on employee benefits | (20) | (12) | (8) |
| Financial charges from amortised cost | 105 | 28 | 77 |
| 281 | 540 | (259) | |
| Realised exchange losses | 163 | 154 | 9 |
| Unrealised exchange losses | (5) | (4) | (1) |
| 158 | 150 | 8 | |
| Total | 439 | 690 | (251) |
Financial charges, amounting to Euro 439 thousand (Euro 690 thousand in the comparative period), decreased Euro 251 thousand.
The decrease is mainly due to financial charges recognised in the first half of 2020 stemming from the settlement with the Tax Agency on July 22, 2020 (Euro 181 thousand), stipulating the partial repayment through instalments of a portion of the research and development tax credit for 2017.
Realised exchange losses arise on the collection of receivables and settlement of payables in foreign currencies.
Unrealised exchange losses relate to the period-end translation of receivables and payables in foreign currencies.
The effective tax charge in the period is presented below (in Euro thousands):
| 30/06/2021 | 30/06/2020 | |
|---|---|---|
| Net deferred tax income/charge | 232 | (248) |
| Italian company taxes | (162) | 517 |
| Taxes overseas companies | (10) | (42) |
| 60 | 227 |
This charge therefore comprises:
The reconciliation between the theoretical and effective IRES corporate income tax is presented below (in Euro thousands):
| 30/06/2021 | 30/06/2020 | |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-tax result Ordinary rate applied |
(2,501) 24.00% |
8,191 24.00% |
| Theoretical IRES taxes | (600) | 1,966 |
| Effect of increases (decreases) to the ordinary rate: | ||
| Permanent increases | 2,225 | 1,960 |
| Permanent decreases | (6,415) | (4,204) |
| Temporary difference increases | 8,890 | 6,332 |
| Temporary difference decreases | (10,480) | (11,855) |
| Total changes | (5,780) | (7,766) |
| (Tax loss)/Assessable income on Group income taxes | (8,281) | 425 |
| Effective IRES taxes | n/a | 102 |
An explanatory statement is reported below:
| H1 2021 | H1 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Group consolidated result (in Euro thousands) | (2,450) | 8,309 | |
| Number of shares in circulation | 26,359,346 | 26,359,346 | |
| Treasury shares | (671,233) | (315,300) | |
| Number of shares entitled to profits | 25,688,113 | 26,044,046 | |
| Basic (loss)/earnings per share (in Euro) Diluted (loss)/earnings per share (in Euro) |
-0.10 -0.09(1) |
0.32 0.31(1) |
(1) Diluted earnings (or loss) per share was determined assuming the conversion of the 800,000 sponsor warrants into ordinary shares.
In the first half of 2021, the Avio Group continued operating activities in line with previous years, exclusively in the Space business. Consequently, all the assets and liabilities, costs and revenues
refer exclusively to a single sector of activity, which corresponds to the consolidation scope of the Group.
The Group workforce numbered 944 at June 30, 2021. At December 31, 2020 and June 30, 2020, Group employees numbered 950.
The regional breakdown of Group revenues (defined based on customer country location), in H1 2021 (and in line with recent years) refers completely to Italy and Europe.
Group activities, and new investments, are similarly allocated - on the basis of the same criterion as revenues (customer country location) - entirely in Italy and Europe.
The Group's principal commitments and risks are summarised in the following table (in Euro thousands):
| 30/06/2021 | 31/12/2020 | |
|---|---|---|
| Guarantees given: | ||
| Unsecured guarantees: | ||
| Sureties issued to third parties on behalf of Group | 47,890 | 47,834 |
| Other guarantees | 3,402 | 3,402 |
| Total guarantees given | 51,292 | 51,236 |
| Guarantees received: | ||
| Sureties and guarantees received | 1,057 | 2,024 |
| 1,057 | 2,024 |
Secured guarantees include sureties issued by third parties on behalf of the Group in favour of clients for the execution of contracts and other guarantees in the form of patronage letters issued in the interest of Group companies.
These principally include sureties received from suppliers against orders for supplies to be completed.
In relation to the associate Termica Colleferro S.p.A., held 40% by Avio and held 60% by S.E.C.I. S.p.A., operator of a thermal electric power plant whose steam production is essential for the functioning of the Colleferro production facility, the following is outlined.
In February 2010, to assist plant construction, Termica Colleferro agreed with a banking syndicate a loan for a maximum Euro 34 million, with duration until February 24, 2022 (the "Loan") and supported by unsecured and secured guarantees, including an on-demand surety of the parent company Seci for a maximum amount of Euro 44.2 million.
The Loan requires Termica Colleferro to comply with certain financial covenants, and more precisely:
In view of the development of general electricity market conditions and the consequent operatingfinancial situation of Termica Colleferro, in 2014, on the request of the lending banks so as to comply with the above Loan covenants, Termica Colleferro requested and obtained from the shareholders Seci and Avio a commitment letter by which the shareholders committed to grant a shareholder loan for maximum amounts respectively of Euro 18.2 million and Euro 12.1 million, in proportion to the share capital respectively held and cumulatively corresponding to the residual portion of the bank loan at that date. The agreements between the shareholders, Termica Colleferro and the banks establish that the shareholder loan shall be disbursed in a number of tranches on the request of Termica Colleferro, subject to the operating requirements of the latter and subordinated to the above Loan.
In the following years, also in consideration of the gradual deterioration of general electricity market conditions, in order to comply with the bank covenants, in December 2016 Termica Colleferro restructured its remaining bank debt of approx. Euro 22 million, mainly by extending the duration of the repayment plan from 2022 to 2027, reducing the interest rate spread and raising the covenant thresholds.
The Loan restructuring agreement did not amend the guarantees granted by the shareholders SECI and Avio to the lending banks, with the exception of the extension of the original guarantees to the new maturity date.
As mentioned above in relation to financing, Avio's maximum financial commitment originally totalled Euro 12.1 million. This financial commitment is structured around a mechanism based on progressive, proportionate reductions as the debt position of Termica Colleferro with the banks decreases.
Termica Colleferro's debt currently totals Euro 11.5 million. At the reporting date, Avio has a shareholder loan granted to Termica Colleferro for a total amount of Euro 7.4 million (carried according to the amortized cost method at Euro 6.3 million). At June 30, 2021, there was therefore no longer any residual commitment upon Avio to grant additional shareholder loans to Termica Colleferro on the basis of the progressive repayment of the Loan by Termica Colleferro to the banks. In fact, at June 30, 2021, in light of the agreements among the shareholders, Termica Colleferro and the banks, against a residual debt of Termica Colleferro for the Loan of Euro 11.5 million, this corresponds to a maximum financial commitment of Avio equal to 40% of the debt, i.e. Euro 4.6 million. As Avio has already disbursed shareholder financing to Termica Colleferro in the amount of Euro 7.4 million, this commitment has been fulfilled in its entirety.
Also in order to comply with the above Loan covenants, Termica Colleferro, Avio, SECI and the lending banks also signed an agreement in 2014 modifying the original loan agreement, in accordance with which Termica Colleferro has the right to remedy the potential violation of the financial covenants ("Equity cure") through the payment by the shareholders SECI and Avio to Termica Colleferro (pro-quota according to the limits of the respective share capital holdings in the company) of an amount as share capital increase and/or a shareholder loan which overall remedies the violation ("Cure amount").
In this regard, on the basis of the most recent approved financial statements of the subsidiary Termica Colleferro S.p.A. at December 31, 2018, the financial covenants provided for in the above loan agreement have been observed.
Where Termica Colleferro does not comply with the covenants established by the above loan, Avio and SECI may be called to undertake additional share capital increases or grant an additional shareholder loan (subordinated) in a measure proportional to their respective holdings.
On May 31, 2019, some Seci Group companies, including the holding company Seci S.p.A, and companies operating in the energy sector, in the agro-industrial sector, in the building/real estate sector and the last in the factoring sector, presented a voluntary arrangement with creditors application to the Bologna Court, agreed following the Order issued by the delegated Judge. The Court originally granted a deadline for the preparation and presentation of an industrial plan for the maintenance of the Group as a "performing" concern until November 4, 2019. Therefore, the majority stake in Termica Colleferro held by SECI S.p.A. has become an asset within the related procedure.
The associated company Termica Colleferro was not included in the companies presenting an administration procedure.
On January 17, 2020 the Court of Bologna ruled that the application for composition with creditors subject to a reserve filed by Seci S.p.A. on May 31, 2019 was inadmissible due to the failure by Seci S.p.A. to file the composition proposal and plan by the date January 3, 2020 fixed for this purpose by the Court of Bologna.
In the interim, on February 13, 2020 the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Court of Bologna filed a petition for a declaration of bankruptcy of Seci S.p.A. following which, the Court of Bologna initially fixed the hearing for discussion on April 3, 2020
On the basis of that reported by the media outlets at that date, due in part to the concurrent effects of COVID-19, Seci S.p.A. presented on March 27, 2020 before the Bologna Court a new agreed settlement application, in so-called full form.
As the presentation by the parent company SECI S.p.A. of the application for an arrangement with creditors is, under the terms of the Termica Colleferro bank loan agreement, an acceleration clause for repayment of the loan, in order to define its position vis-à-vis the banking sector and to prepare the 2019 financial statements on a going concern basis, on April 27, 2020, Termica Colleferro requested that the banking syndicate waive the acceleration clause in the loan agreement.
Following a number of clarifications requested by the banks, the waiver request was resent on July 29, 2020 in order to receive a response in time for the approval of the 2019 financial statements (according to the applicable deadlines, also in view of the extensions granted as a result of COVID-19).
Following lengthy examination of the waiver request by the banks, Termica Colleferro examined, including with the support of its external consultants, the possibility of waiting for the banks' response to the waiver request in order to approve the 2019 financial statements.
In August 2020, while awaiting specific information from the parent company SECI S.p.A. concerning the arrangement with creditors and, more generally, the possibilities for the overall restructuring process (also in relation to the arrangement with Officine Maccaferri S.p.A.), the banks indicated that they are not in a position to carry out an assessment of the creditworthiness of the requests made by Termica Colleferro, while they shall not activate the acceleration clause.
After taking steps with SECI S.p.A. such that SECI S.p.A. could respond to requests for information from the banks, Termica Colleferro continued to pay the instalments of the loan due in 2020 (in February and August) and in February 2021 (in February and August).
The first hearing in court to lift the reserve on the admission of the composition procedure and approval of the creditors plan was scheduled for March 23, 2021 and was subsequently postponed to May 18, 2021 due to COVID-19.
In the first half of 2021, in pursuit of the objective to sell the stake in Termica Colleferro, SECI S.p.A. mandated an energy sector consulting firm to contact the leading industry players and issued a process letter to them describing how a future process of oversight by the Court of Bologna for the procedure of combination with creditors would work and calling for a formal, binding expression of interest in acquiring the 60% holding in Termica Colleferro, which was initially set to take place by July 5, 2021, and has since been postponed.
This action led a number of parties potentially interested in acquiring stakes in Termica Colleferro to contact Avio in order to ask about potential future collaborations should they be awarded the equity interest.
During these meetings, on July 5, 2021, the Bologna Court declared SECI S.p.A. bankrupt and appointed three receivers.
In consideration of the different procedural context that arose with the declaration of bankruptcy, although the liquidation scenario of the investment in Termica Colleferro started by SECI S.p.A. remained substantially unchanged, Termica Colleferro and Avio promptly contacted the receivers in order to coordinate and accelerate the disposal of the 60% of the share capital of the Company.
Following discussions with the Receivership, in which Termica Colleferro and Avio, as supplier and customer, laid out their respective operational needs, the Bologna Court took immediate steps to initiate the sale of the stake held by SECI S.p.A. in Termica Colleferro, authorising the Receivers to take steps in this regard by issuing an authorisation order on August 18, 2021, which was followed by publication of the related call for tender on September 1, 2021.
As such, the bankruptcy procedure is, in fact, in line with the continuity needs with respect to the liquidation initiatives undertaken by SECI S.p.A. in the composition with creditors.
On August 24, 2021, Termica Colleferro repaid the second instalment on the bank loan, completing the repayment plan scheduled for the entire 2021.
At present, there is no evidence of a risk either that the receivables from Termica Colleferro will not be collected or that the provision of electricity or heat will be interrupted. For further details, reference should be made to the "Main risks and uncertainties to which the Group is exposed" section.
At the half-year reporting date, a number of Group companies were either plaintiffs or defendants to legal, civil, administrative and tax cases related to normal business operations, as outlined below.
Avio S.p.A. and the subsidiaries have established in their financial statements and, therefore, in the consolidated financial statements, appropriate provisions for risks and charges to cover foreseeable liabilities relating to disputes of differing natures with suppliers and third parties, both within the courts and extra-judicially, the relative legal expenses, in addition to administrative sanctions, penalties and client indemnities. In establishing provisions, account was taken of: (i) the risks related to each dispute; and (ii) the applicable accounting standards, which require the provisioning of liabilities for probable and quantifiable risks.
Avio Group management consider the risks and charges provision estimates as appropriate with regards to the Group's overall amount of contingent liabilities.
In addition, with regards to disputes with a possible or remote risk of loss, or of an incalculable amount (of a limited number), in accordance with the accounting standards no risks provision has been established.
The Group in addition bases its risk of potential loss estimates on assessments/expectations with regards to the expected final judgment on the dispute, which remains however linked to the intrinsic uncertainty of each judgment, for which differing outcomes (whether favourable or unfavourable) for the Group against the ex-ante estimates may not be excluded.
A summary of current proceedings considered by the Group as significant on the basis of the amount or matters considered is provided below.
As a result of the discovery of toxic substances in milk in June 2005 and the preliminary investigations of February 2009, in March 2010, the Republic of Velletri Public Prosecutor requested the citation of a number of individuals from Caffaro S.r.l., Centrale del Latte di Roma S.p.A. and Consorzio Servizi Colleferro (the legal representative and the presumed technical manager), alleging negligence causing the environmental disaster from the poisoning of the Sacco River waters and of substances intended for human consumption (milk), occurring in Colleferro, Segni and Gavignano until December 2008, and with regard to the consortium alone, the discharge of industrial wastewater without the prescribed authorisations in the same areas until November 2006. In particular, despite the fact that the Consortium was the sole party responsible for the final discharge of the industrial wastewater treatment plant of the area, its senior executives are accused of a failure to provide adequate safety measures, control systems and/or purifying treatments to prevent white water and first flush from the drainage of some areas in the area, collected by a trench facing the consortium wastewater treatment plant, flowing into the Sacco River, resulting in the contamination of the feed of dairy animals raised near the river. The Consortium operates on a non-profit basis with a main object to collect and treat waste water from the sites belonging to the consortium and sites in the industrial district of Colleferro.
The Ministry of the Environment, Land and Sea, the local municipalities and a number private parties (associations and individuals) appeared as civil claimants in the trial. The claims are founded on the environmental damages pursuant to Part IV of the Environmental Code (Legislative Decree No. 152 of April 3, 2006) and liability in tort pursuant to Articles 2043 et seq. of the Civil Code due to personal injury. The total amount of the damages sought has been set by the adverse parties at approximately Euro 35 million.
At present, Servizi Colleferro S.C.p.A. is owned by the following consortium member shareholders: Avio S.p.A. (32%), Se.co.sv.im. S.r.l. (20%), Termica Colleferro S.p.A. (6%), Caffaro s.r.l. in extraordinary administration (5%), Recuperi Materie Prime S.r.l. (5%), Municipality of Colleferro (5%), EP Sistemi S.p.A. (6%), Lazio Ambiente S.p.A. (6%), Joyson Safety Systems Torino S.r.l. (5%) and Simmel Difesa S.p.A. (10%).
Finally, at the hearing of July 16, 2020, the Court of Velletri, in single-justice composition, fully acquitted Mr. Giovanni Paravani and Mr. Renzo Crosariol of the offense referred to in Section A) of the indictment, concerning the violation of Articles 113, 449, paragraph 1 (in relation to Article 434), 452, paragraph 1, No.3 (in relation to Article 439) of the Italian Criminal Code (negligent disaster), as judged to not have committed the act, consequently rejecting the claims brought by the civil parties against Servizi Colleferro S.C.p.A.
On March 30, 2021, legal counsel reported that neither the Prefect nor the claimants filed an appeal of the acquittals.
Therefore, the case has been definitively closed in favour of Messrs. Paravani and Crosariol and, consequently, of Servizi Colleferro.
The Colleferro industrial district includes an industrial area known as "Benzoin and derivatives" that until December 31, 2007 was leased to Caffaro S.p.A., which since September 2009 was subject to an extraordinary administration proceeding. For the collection of Caffaro debts, Secosvim submitted an application for admission to its insolvency proceedings, which was accepted.
At the same time, the Emergency Commissioners Office of Sacco Valley issued a claim for damages against Caffaro for land pollution for an estimated amount of approx. Euro 7 million, corresponding to the expected cost for the recovery of these areas. Caffaro challenged in the period between 2008 and 2012, before the Lazio Regional Administrative Court, a series of administrative acts (minutes of the conferences of service, notes with which Caffaro was requested to present contaminated waste disposal plans, approval deeds of characterization activities), requesting cancellation, with which the Commissioner's Office sought damages from Caffaro. These motions were notified also to Secosvim as owner of the Benzoin area (leased by Caffaro until 2007), which was therefore summoned before the court in accordance with law.
As the company Caffaro may claim these costs from Secosvim as the owner of the buildings, Secosvim therefore has requested since October 2009 before the Velletri court a prior technical declaration ("ATP") to establish any liability upon Caffaro for the contamination of the Benzoin area, which concluded with the filing of an opinion which confirmed the direct liability of Caffaro for the above-stated contamination.
In this regard, during the proceedings the State Prosecutor requested the Regional Administrative Court to assess the judicial incompatibility of the appeal decision. On conclusion of the hearing of December 6, 2016, the Lazio Regional Administrative Court consequently adopted separate ordinances (of identical tenor), with which (for each appeal) the President of the Counsel was requested to file within 90 days documented clarifications with regards to the criminal proceeding pending before the Velletri Court No. 1831/2014 (as reported in the previous paragraph, relating to the "Criminal proceeding against Consorzio Servizi Colleferro with regards to the pollution of the Sacco river"). The hearing to discuss these appeals was held on June 20, 2018.
The last hearing was held on June 9 of this year. We await publication of the ruling.
Information is provided below on the most significant tax audits and disputes which, at the date of the present financial statements, concerned Avio S.p.A. and its subsidiaries, with details on the specific disputes and the relative amounts.
A.1.) Settlement notice served on July 28, 2016 for indirect taxes on the transfer of the Aeroengine business unit from Avio S.p.A. to GE Avio S.r.l.
On July 28 ,2016, the Tax Agency notified Avio S.p.A. of a settlement notice for registration, mortgage and cadastral taxes totalling Euro 58,220 thousand, re-categorising the conferment of the Aeroengine business unit from Avio S.p.A. to GE Avio S.r.l., and the subsequent sale of the shares of this latter company, during 2013, as a direct transfer of the business unit and, consequently, raised the alleged non-payment of the indirect taxes applicable to the above declared transfer of the business unit.
Convinced that there were extremely valid arguments for considering the charges brought by the revenue authorities to be baseless, Avio S.p.A. - in coordination with the General Electric Group, jointly appearing with Avio S.p.A. - appealed the aforementioned settlement notice. The Piedmont Regional Tax Commission decided in the company's favour in judgment 1740/18 filed on November 7, 2018, in which it granted the Company's appeal in full.
In 2020 the Italian Tax Office appealed the above judgment before the Court of Cassation. The Company appeared promptly in the proceedings with its own counter-appeal and simultaneous crossappeal, reaffirming the soundness of its arguments.
With regards to this dispute, on the basis of specific contractual provisions, the General Electric Group is required to indemnify Avio S.p.A. for any liabilities which may arise with regards to the indirect taxes relating to the disposal of the company GE Avio S.r.l. (containing the AeroEngine segment operations of the Avio Group), in addition to the provision to Avio S.p.A. of any amounts requested by the Tax Agency by the established payment deadlines. In this regard, on August 12, 2016, following the notification from the Tax Agency to Avio S.p.A. of the settlement notice for a total of Euro 58,220 thousand, GE Italia Holding S.p.A. confirmed to Avio S.p.A. its punctual fulfilment of the above contractual stipulations. In view of that above, and particularly the notification of the above-
stated settlement notice which quantifies the alleged indirect taxes as Euro 58,220 thousand, in addition to the above payments of the contractually established indemnities and confirmed subsequently to the settlement notice at issue, a tax payable was recognised to the financial statements in relation to the liabilities which may arise from the dispute regarding the settlement notice and a corresponding receivable from the General Electric Group recorded for the same amount of Euro 58,220 thousand.
With regard to the litigation in question, and in particular the subject-matter of the dispute, relating to the anti-avoidance provision of Article 20, headed "Interpretation of acts", of Presidential Decree No. 131/1986 ("Consolidated Registration Tax Act"), mention should be made of some circumstances post-dating the service of the payment notice. Specifically:
At the reporting date, the Court of Cassation has yet to schedule a hearing.
A.2) Questionnaire of the Piedmont DRE of June 4, 2019 concerning transfer prices between Avio S.p.A. and Regulus S.A. - 2014 Tax period
In November 2019, the Piedmont Tax Agency served two separate assessment notices on the Company, respectively for IRES and IRAP, in relation to the 2014 tax year, concerning the application of "transfer pricing" tax regulations to transactions between Avio S.p.A. and its subsidiary Regulus S.A., on the assumption that the latter is a tax resident in French Guyana.
With regard to the IRES assessment notice, it should be noted that, pending the settlement procedure, the Company has asked the Office to be able to offset the greater taxable profit assessed against unused prior tax losses. Granting the Company's request, in July 2020 the Office recalculated the greater IRES assessed for 2014 (and related interest), reducing it to zero and levying a single administrative fine of Euro 1,250.00.
With regard to the IRAP assessment notice, since the value of production adjusted by the Office is still negative, no tax was recovered and a fixed penalty of Euro 250.00 was levied. Therefore, the liability associated with this dispute amounts to a total of Euro 1,500.
The Company, as confident of the correctness of its actions and considering that it has acted in full compliance with the law, including in light of the OECD Guidelines and the Ministry of Economy and Finance Decree of May 14, 2018, challenged within the permitted timeframe the two IRES and IRAP assessment notices of June 2020.
The hearing to discuss the case has been postponed as the Office has proposed a settlement to the Company for the amicable settlement of this dispute. The Company has reserved the right to decide whether to accept the settlement, but solely so as to avoid litigation, given that the Company is convinced to have done no wrong.
A brief description of the Secosvim S.r.l. tax dispute, in addition to a brief description of the main related contingent liabilities, is outlined below.
B.1.) Tax dispute with the Customs Agency with regards to excise and provincial and municipal additions in the electricity sector regarding the years 2001-2005.
This dispute has reached the Court of Cassation after a ruling in favour of the Company in the court of second instance.
In 2017, awaiting the ruling of the superior court, the Company submitted a proposal to the Customs Agency to settle the matter out of court in accordance with Article 5-bis of law decree No. 123 of October 22, 2016. This agreement was signed on September 2017 and, with this agreement, the Company undertook to pay a total of Euro 846,000 as taxes plus interest on instalment payments at an annual rate of 2.10%, while benefiting from the nullification of past-due interest and other penalties and sanctions.
This amount was paid in four annual instalments of equal amount, the last of which was paid on September 28, 2020.
On May 6, 2021 the Court of Cassation, acknowledging the settlement agreement between the Company and the Customs Office and noting that all instalments due from the Company had been paid, declared the matter in dispute to be closed by decree.
2011: the dispute for the year in question concerns property tax, interest and penalties levied for a total of Euro 57 thousand.
Secosvim, following an unsuccessful settlement procedure, appealed to the Rome Provincial Tax Commission, which in June 2018 rendered a judgment unfavourable to the Company.
In February 2019 Secosvim lodged a timely appeal against the unfavourable judgment rendered by the Rome Provincial Tax Commission.
The fixing of the appeal hearing by the Lazio Regional Tax Commission is currently being awaited.
2012 and 2013: the dispute for the years in question concerns property tax, interest and penalties levied for a total of Euro 14 thousand.
In July 2018, Secosvim lodged a complaint/appeal with the Rome Provincial Tax Commission.
The Rome Provincial Tax Commission rejected the Company's claims in a judgment filed in December 2019.
The Company promptly appealed the above judgment in September 2020 and is now awaiting the fixing of the appeal hearing by the Lazio Regional Tax Commission.
These disputes concern three notices of assessment for VAT related to 2010, 2011 and 2012, disputing the Company's alleged failure to apply VAT to reclamation costs billed to Avio S.p.A. in these years for a total, including interest and penalties, of Euro 3,568,202.
In 2019, the company decided to agree to the expedited settlement of the pending tax disputes as per Article 6 of Legislative Decree No. 119 of October 23, 2018, converted with amendments by Law No. 136 of December 17, 2018. This settlement resulted in the payment of the taxes alone, without any past-due interest or penalties. The total amount due for all settlements is Euro 1,659,486.05, which is to be paid in 20 quarterly instalments. The first instalment was paid on May 31, 2019, and the final payment must be made by February 28, 2024.
For 2021, the amount to be paid as an agreed settlement is Euro 323,939.65 (Euro 331,897 including interest).
As at July 31, 2020, the Tax Agency had not notified the Company of any refusal of the settlement of pending litigation, as a result of the provisions of Article 6 of Decree-Law No. 119/2018, the settlement of the disputes by the Company must be considered final and legitimately carried out.
B.4) Correction and settlement of increased registration, mortgage and land taxes from the reclassification as the disposal of a business, with related recalculation of goodwill relating to the business unit, of the transfer of the "Energia Colleferro" business unit to Termica Colleferro S.p.A. and the subsequent transfer of the investment in this latter to the indirect parent company Avio S.p.A.
In relation to the transfer of the "Energia Colleferro" business unit to Termica Colleferro S.p.A. and the subsequent transfer of the investment in this latter to the indirect parent company Avio S.p.A., the Bologna Tax Office had served:
The dispute concerning the document referred to in point a) was resolved in the Company's favour in both the first and second instances. Accordingly, on December 2, 2019 the Italian Tax Office filed an appeal against the judgment of the Emilia Romagna Regional Tax Commission before the Court of Cassation.
On January 24, 2020 the Company appeared promptly in the proceedings, filing its own counterappeal.
The Court of Cassation has yet to schedule a hearing.
The dispute concerning the document referred to in point b) was resolved in the Company's favour in the first instance, whereas in the second instance in December 2018 the Emilia Romagna Regional Tax Commission suspended the trial pending the resolution of the dispute indicated in point a) above.
It should be noted that this company had not been and is not involved in any tax audits or disputes at the reporting date.
Europropulsion was subject to a Tax Assessment by the French Tax Authorities with regards to the "taxe professionnelle" (an indirect tax adopted in France similar to the Italian IRAP) on ESA assets provided for use by the Company initially for tax years 2009, 2010 and 2011 and subsequently for 2012 and 2013.
The amounts contested are:
For the years 2009-2011, Europropulsion presented a first level appeal at the competent Tax Court, which judged against the company; the Company appealed this decision on September 9, 2016. With judgment of November 11, 2017, the competent French tax authorities cancelled the challenge concerning financial year 2010.
In the course of the legal procedure, it bears mentioning that in 2020 the judicial authority, known as the "Conseil d'Etat", declared the use of ESA assets subject to taxation according to an interpretation of the spirit of the tax law, referring the judgment to the next level, in accordance with the French legal system.
The unfavourable ruling was issued in July 2021, but the Company and legal counsel, based on a number of issues in form and in substance with the latest ruling, are evaluating the possibility of an appeal to the superior court by the end of September.
In view of the aforementioned judgment rendered in 2020 and 2021 the opinion of its legal counsel, in its 2020 and 2021 financial statements the Company decided to recognise the total amount of the tax liability associated with the theme in question in years 2009 to 2020, which was recalculated and
estimated at approximately Euro 4 million. Therefore, the financial statements of these joint ventures at June 30, 2021, still reflect this allocation.
In relation to any financial instruments recorded in the balance sheet at fair value, IFRS 7 requires that these values are classified based on the hierarchy levels which reflects the significance of the input utilised in the determination of fair value. The following levels are used:
The company and the Avio Group did not have derivative financial instruments in place at June 30, 2021.
The Avio Group through its operating activities is exposed to financial risks, in particular:
These financial risks are continually monitored, undertaking initiatives to offset and contain potential impacts through appropriate policies and, where in general considered necessary, also through specific hedging instruments (currently not necessary as the loan interest rate with the EIB is fixed and competitive compared to the market).
Credit risk represents the exposure of the Company and of the Group to potential losses due to the non-compliance with obligations by commercial and financial counterparties.
The exposure to credit risk is essentially related to receivables recognised to the financial statements, particularly trade receivables and guarantees provided in favour of third parties.
The maximum theoretical exposure to the credit risk for the Group at June 30, 2021 essentially concerned the overall carrying amount of trade receivables, whose value at this date amounted to Euro 4,533 thousand.
This amount was recognised to the Assets section of the Balance Sheet, as the net balance between the nominal value of trade receivables and, as counter-entry, advances to be received.
Regarding the reasons for the exposure to credit risk represented by receivables net of "advances to be repaid", in accounting terms, the issuing of invoices involves as a counter-entry, against the recognition of an asset from the clients, the recognition of a liability concerning the advances to be received. These are both recognised to the balance sheet. The ageing analysis therefore is made net of the above-stated advances.
The main Group clients are government bodies and public sector clients, which by their nature do not present significant risk concentrations (ESA - European Space Agency, Arianespace, ArianeGroup).
In addition, operating on an order basis, the Avio Group plans the management of advances so as to attain the funding before and during the incursion of order costs, on the basis of the various contractual milestones and mitigating therefore the risk regarding the payment of receivables against the initiated production activities.
Based on an analysis of overdue trade receivables at June 30, 2021, trade receivables net of a doubtful debt provision were recorded of Euro 482 thousand. The overdue amounts were therefore not significant and mainly relate to timing factors.
The Company and Group's liquidity risk concerns any difficulties in obtaining at appropriate conditions the funding necessary to support operations. The principal factors which influence liquidity are, on the one hand, the resources generated and absorbed by the operating and investment activities and on the other the conditions concerning the maturity of the payable or the liquidity of the financial commitments.
Cash flows, funding requirements and liquidity are centrally monitored and managed, also through centralised treasury systems involving the main Group Italian and overseas companies, in order to ensure the timely and efficient sourcing of funding or the appropriate investment of liquidity, optimising the management of liquidity and cash flows. The Group periodically monitors forecast and effective cash flows and updates future cash flow projections in order to optimise liquidity management and calculate any funding requirements.
The currently available funds, in addition to those that will be generated from operating and financial activities, are considered sufficient to permit the Group to satisfy its requirements for investment activities, working capital management and the repayment of debt on maturity.
With regards to the current financial structure of the Company and of the Group and the fact that the operating currency is almost exclusively the Euro, the company is not considered to currently be subject to significant market risks from fluctuations in exchange rates or interest rates on financial receivables and payables.
The Company and the Group, considering that stated with regards to the insignificant market risk related to exchange rate and interest rate movements, at June 30, 2020 had not undertaken specific cash flow hedges in relation to these types of risks.
The company has two loans with the European Investment Bank (EIB) for an original total of Euro 50 million (Euro 37 million remaining), at a competitive interest rate compared to the market.
Therefore, this risk is not considered applicable to the company and, therefore, to the Avio Group.
Avio regularly undertakes commercial and financial transactions with its subsidiaries and jointlycontrolled companies, consisting of transactions relating to ordinary operations and undertaken at normal market conditions. In particular, these concern the supply and purchase of goods and services, including of an administrative-accounting, tax, IT, personnel management and assistance and consultancy nature, and the relative receivables and payables at period-end and funding and centralised treasury management transactions and the relative charges and income. These transactions are eliminated in the consolidation and consequently are not outlined in this section.
The related parties of the Avio Group are identified on the basis of IAS 24 - Related Party Disclosures, applicable from January 1, 2011, and are the parent companies, companies with a connection with the Avio Group and its subsidiaries as defined by the applicable rules, companies controlled but not consolidated within the Avio Group, associates and jointly-controlled companies of the Avio Group and other investee companies.
Until the effective acquisition date by Space2, Leonardo and In Orbit (on March 31, 2017), Leonardo - on the basis of rights arising under the Cinven shareholder agreement - had a connection with the Avio Group, although formally holding an investment in the Incorporated company under the threshold established by the IAS and Article 2359 of the Civil Code, final paragraph. Following the listing, although the shareholder agreement with Cinven had lapsed, Leonardo S.p.A. maintained this connection with the Avio Group on the basis of the increase of its investment in the Incorporated company over the threshold established by the above-stated rules.
The following tables present the quantification of transactions with related parties not falling within the Group consolidation on the Balance Sheet and on the Group Income Statement at June 30, 2021 and December 31, 2020 (in Euro thousands):
| At June 30, 2021 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Counterparty | Other non current assets |
Inventories and Advances to suppliers |
Trade receivables |
Other current assets |
Contract work-in progress |
Non-current financial assets |
Trade payables |
Other current liabilities |
Advances for contract work in progress |
Financial liabilities |
| Leonardo S.p.A. |
- | 2,440 | - | - | - | - | 73 | 266 | - | - |
| MBDA Italia S.p.A. |
- | - | 17 | - | 5,576 | - | - | - | - | - |
| MBDA France S.A. |
- | - | 135 | - | 13,595 | - | - | - | 16,581 | - |
| Thales Alenia Space Italia S.p.A. |
- | - | 75 | - | 126 | - | - | - | 145 | - |
| Vitrociset S.p.A. |
- | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Companies with a connecting relationship and relative investee companies |
- | 2,440 | 228 | - | 19,297 | - | 73 | 266 | 16,726 | - |
| Termica Colleferro |
- | - | 685 | - | - | 6,337 | 36 | - | - | 1,189 |
| S.p.A. Europropulsion S.A. |
- | 29,567 | 364 | - | 71,113 | - | 4,435 | - | 54,112 | 7,749 |
| Potable Water Services Consortium |
- | - | 181 | 18 | - | - | 63 | - | - | - |
| Servizi Colleferro - Consortium Limited Liability Company |
- | - | 89 | - | - | - | 107 | - | - | - |
| Associates and jointly controlled companies |
- | 29,567 | 1,319 | 18 | 71,113 | 6,337 | 4,641 | - | 54,112 | 8,938 |
| Total related parties |
- | 32,007 | 1,547 | 18 | 90,409 | 6,337 | 4,714 | 266 | 70,838 | 8,938 |
| Total book value |
71,439 | 150,030 | 4,533 | 11,751 | 409,193 | 6,337 | 52,674 | 33,846 | 562,725 | 51,445 |
| % on total account items |
0.00% | 21.33% | 34.12% | 0.15% | 22.09% | 100.00% | 8.95% | 0.79% | 12.59% | 17.37% |
| At December 31, 2020 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Counterparty | Other non current assets |
Inventories and advances to suppliers |
Trade receivables |
Other current assets |
Contract work-in progress |
Non current financial assets |
Trade payables |
Other current liabilities |
Advances for contract work in progress |
Financial liabilities |
| Leonardo S.p.A. |
- | 3,530 | - | - | - | - | 2,112 | 248 | - | - |
| MBDA Italia | - | - | 17 | - | 5,465 | - | - | - | 179 | - |
| S.p.A. MBDA France |
||||||||||
| S.A. Thales Alenia |
- | - | 3 | - | 9,779 | - | - | - | 23,540 | - |
| Space Italia | - | - | - | - | 126 | - | - | - | - | - |
| S.p.A. Vitrociset |
- | - | - | 115 | - | 581 | - | 113 | - | |
| S.p.A. | - | |||||||||
| Companies with a connecting relationship and relative investee companies |
- | 3,530 | 20 | - | 15,485 | - | 2,693 | 248 | 23,832 | - |
| Termica | ||||||||||
| Colleferro S.p.A. |
- | - | 810 | - | - | 6,259 | 445 | - | - | 1,257 |
| Europropulsion S.A. |
- | 34,702 | 566 | - | 77,307 | - | 7,236 | - | 55,683 | 12,749 |
| Potable Water Services Consortium |
- | - | 158 | 4 | - | - | (120) | - | - | - |
| Servizi Colleferro - Consortium Limited Liability Company |
- | - | 80 | - | - | - | 3 | - | - | - |
| Associates and jointly controlled companies |
- | 34,702 | 1,614 | 4 | 77,307 | 6,259 | 7,564 | - | 55,683 | 14,006 |
| Total related parties |
- | 38,232 | 1,634 | 4 | 92,792 | 6,259 | 10,257 | 248 | 79,515 | 14,006 |
| Total book value |
74,140 | 140,309 | 2,175 | 8,954 | 334,860 | 6,259 | 66,454 | 24,803 | 477,871 | 62,031 |
| % on total account items |
0.00% | 27.25% | 75.13% | 0.04% | 27.71% | 100.00% | 15.43% | 1.00% | 16.64% | 22.58% |
In H1 2021 and H1 2020, the main income statement transactions by the Group with related parties were as follows (in Euro thousands):
| At June 30, 2021 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Counterparty | Operating Revenues and changes in contract work in-progress |
Operating Costs (1) |
Financial income |
Financial Charges |
|||
| Leonardo S.p.A. | - | 1,354 | - | - | |||
| MBDA Italia S.p.A. | 2,241 | - | - | - | |||
| MBDA France S.A. | 12,095 | - | - | - | |||
| Thales Alenia Space Italia S.p.A. | 22 | - | - | - | |||
| Vitrociset S.p.A. | - | - | - | - | |||
| Companies with a connecting relationship and relative investee companies |
14,358 | 1,354 | - | - | |||
| Termica Colleferro S.p.A. | 57 | 4,220 | 78 | 8 | |||
| Europropulsion S.A. | 31,051 | 13,623 | - | - | |||
| Potable Water Services Consortium | 37 | 263 | - | - | |||
| Servizi Colleferro - Consortium Limited Liability Company | 131 | 556 | - | - | |||
| Associates and jointly controlled companies | 31,276 | 18,662 | 78 | 8 | |||
| Total related parties | 45,634 | 20,016 | 78 | 8 | |||
| Total book value | 132,879 | 135,905 | 348 | 439 | |||
| % on total account items | 34.34% | 14.73% | 22.42% | 1.71% |
(1) The account includes raw material consumables, service costs and personnel expenses.
| At June 30, 2020 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Counterparty | Operating Revenues and changes in contract work in-progress |
Operating Costs (1) |
Financial income | Financial Charges |
|||
| Leonardo S.p.A. | - | 153 | - | - | |||
| MBDA Italia S.p.A. | 809 | - | - | - | |||
| MBDA France S.A. | 8,306 | - | - | - | |||
| Thales Alenia Space Italia S.p.A. | - | - | - | - | |||
| Vitrociset S.p.A. | - | 714 | - | - | |||
| Companies with a connecting relationship and relative investee companies |
9,115 | 867 | - | - | |||
| Termica Colleferro S.p.A. | 55 | 3,373 | 77 | 5 | |||
| Europropulsion S.A. | 44,639 | 9,415 | - | - | |||
| Potable Water Services Consortium | 37 | 238 | - | - | |||
| Servizi Colleferro - Consortium Limited Liability Company | 158 | 490 | - | - | |||
| Associates and jointly controlled companies | 44,889 | 13,516 | 77 | 5 | |||
| Total related parties | 54,004 | 14,383 | 77 | 5 | |||
| Total book value | 175,311 | 167,600 | 347 | 690 | |||
| % on total account items | 30.80% | 8.58% | 22.17% | 0.72% |
(1) The account includes raw material consumables, service costs and personnel expenses.
Transactions with companies with a connecting relationship and relative investee companies
The transactions with Leonardo S.p.A., considered a company with whom a connecting relationship exists, concern assistance and consultancy services. Transactions with investee companies by Leonardo are typically of a commercial nature.
With regards to the client MBDA Italia S.p.A., the guarantees issued by leading credit institutions cover prompt compliance with the contractual obligations undertaken by Avio for the Camm-er orders. Their release is based on completion of the relative contractual milestones.
Group transactions with non-consolidated subsidiaries concern ordinary operating activities and are concluded at normal market conditions.
Company transactions with associates and jointly-controlled companies may be summarised as follows:
The bank guarantees to the Sitab Consortium in liquidation concern supplies in previous years and, together with the Consortium, are expected to be withdrawn shortly.
Group transactions with other related parties concern the following operations:
The following table presents the key details of Avio Group investees at June 30, 2021:
| Companies included in the consolidation scope at June 30, 2021 | Holding |
|---|---|
| Parent | |
| Avio S.p.A. | - |
| Companies consolidated by the line-by-line method | |
| Spacelab S.p.A. | 70% |
| Regulus S.A. | 60% |
| SE.CO.SV.IM. S.r.l. | 100% (*) |
| Avio Guyane S.A.S. | 100% |
| Avio France S.A.S. | 100% |
| ASPropulsion International B.V. | 100% |
| Avio India Aviation Aerospace Private Limited (**) | 100% (***) |
| Jointly controlled companies, measured at equity | |
| Europropulsion S.A. | 50% |
| Associates, measured at equity | |
| Termica Colleferro S.p.A. | 40% |
(*) Holding through ASPropulsion International B.V.
(**) The company is in liquidation. No financial commitments are expected for the Group related to the liquidation.
(***) Investment held in part directly by Avio S.p.A. (95%) and in part through ASPropulsion International B.V. (5%).
The following information is provided in accordance with the public disclosure requirements imposed by public grant legislation: This disclosure concerns, as required by the regulation, disbursements accruing in H1 2021:
| Receiving company |
Disbursing PA |
Project | Years_costs Project |
Loans issued in H1 2021 |
Collection date |
Ministry for Economic Development |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (€ / mln) |
(€ / mln) | |||||
| AVIO SPA | Ministry for Economic Development |
80-ton solid propellant engine - P80 |
2006-2008 | - | - | 1.16 |
| AVIO SPA | Ministry for Economic Development |
80-ton solid propellant engine - P80 |
2009 | - | - | 0.26 |
| AVIO SPA | Ministry for Economic Development |
80-ton solid propellant engine - P80 |
2010 | - | - | 0.15 |
| AVIO SPA | Ministry for Economic Development |
Innovative, strategic carbon epoxy prepreg materials and modified elastomeric thermal insulation formulated and produced within Italy for filament winding applied to 40T space engines |
2009 | - | - | 0.15 |
| AVIO SPA | Ministry for Economic Development |
Innovative, strategic carbon epoxy prepreg materials and modified elastomeric thermal insulation formulated and produced within Italy for filament winding applied to 40T space engines |
2010 | - | - | 0.46 |
| AVIO SPA | Ministry for Economic Development |
Innovative, strategic carbon epoxy prepreg materials and modified elastomeric thermal insulation formulated and produced within Italy for filament winding applied to 40T space engines |
2011-2012 | - | - | 0.56 |
| AVIO SPA | Ministry for Economic Development |
Innovative, strategic carbon epoxy prepreg materials and modified elastomeric thermal insulation formulated and produced within Italy for filament winding applied to 40T space engines |
2012-2013 | - | - | 1.69 |
| AVIO SPA | Ministry for Economic Development |
Innovative, strategic carbon epoxy prepreg materials and modified elastomeric thermal insulation formulated and produced within Italy for |
2014-2015 | - | - | 1.83 |
| filament winding applied to 40T space engines |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AVIO SPA | Ministry for Economic Development |
Innovative, strategic carbon epoxy prepreg materials and modified elastomeric thermal insulation formulated and produced within Italy for filament winding applied to 40T space engines |
2016-2017 | - | - | 2.0 |
| AVIO SPA | Ministry for Economic Development |
LOX/LCH technology demonstrator for the first stage of the Vega E launcher |
2014-2016 | - | - | 1.16 |
| - | 9.42 |
"Receivables from the Ministry for Economic Development" for disbursements in accordance with Law 808/85, amounting to Euro 9.42 million, refer to the nominal value of the grants to be issued by the Ministry for Economic Development. The amounts by Project are broken down as follows: Euro 1.56 million for the "80 ton solid propellant motor - P80" project; Euro 6.70 million for the "Innovative, strategic carbon epoxy prepreg materials and modified elastomeric thermal insulation formulated and produced within Italy for filament winding applied to 40T space engines" project; Euro 1.16 million for the "LOX/LCH demonstrated technology for the third stage of the Vega E launcher" project. These receivables are recorded in the accounts at the value resulting from the application of the amortised cost method, calculated utilising the effective interest rate, and are increased due to the effect of the accumulated amortisation of the difference between the initial value and the actual cash amounts and booked in the accounts under "Financial income".
| Receivin g compan y |
Disbursing PA |
Project | Years_cos ts Project |
Loans issued in H1 2021 |
Collection date |
Nominal receivabl e to be collected |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (€ / mln) |
(€ / mln) | |||||
| AVIO SPA |
MINISTRY FOR UNIVERSITY AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH |
PRADE - NOP 02_00029_3205863 | NA | 0.02 | 12/01/2021 | NA |
| AVIO SPA |
European Union |
EUSTM: SPACE TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT FOR XXI CENTURY SPACE OPERATIONS |
NA | 0.02 | 24/03/2021 | NA |
| AVIO SPA |
Lazio Region | MAGIC | NA | 0.05 | 22/04/2021 | NA |
| AVIO SPA |
European Union |
C3HARME | NA | 0.15 | 26/04/2021 | NA |
| 0.24 | NA |
As reported in the Explanatory Notes in the tax receivable paragraphs, the Avio Group has recognised with regards to financial years 2019, 2018 and 2017, the Research and development tax credit permitted under Article 3 of Legislative Decree No. 145 of December 23, 2013 and subsequent amendments. In relation to 2020, the Avio Group recognised a research and development tax credit in accordance with the provisions of the 2020 Italian Budget.
On January 18, 2021, Avio S.p.A. also used Euro 18,912.00 as a sanitisation tax credit accrued in 2020 for a total of Euro 28,297.00 based on the provisions of the "Cura Italia" decree for measures to respond to the COVID-19 health emergency.
On July 7, 2021, Avia received various extensions of production orders from MBDA France S.A.S. for the production of additional batches of boosters for the ASTER-30 anti-aircraft and anti-missile defence system for a total value of over Euro 80 million.
Deliveries related to these additional orders are expected to cover the period 2022-30.
On July 14, 2021, an agreement was signed by Avio and the commission for Italy's participation in Expo Dubai in the presence of the chairman of the Italian Space Agency, COMINT Secretary General Luigi De Leverano, and the regional councilman for Economic Development, Trade, Research & Innovation Paolo Orneli.
The application of sustainability and innovation, key themes of Expo 2020 Dubai, within the aerospace industry is the focus of the agreement by which Avio is to be a Gold Sponsor of the Italy Pavilion for the upcoming world expo to take place beginning October 1.
On July 21, 2021, at ESA's European Space Research Institute (ESRIN) in Frascati, Italy, Avio and ESA signed an agreement valued at Euro 118.8 million that ensures development of the Vega E launcher beyond 2025.
This agreement marks the start of a new phase in the development of Vega E (evolution), a more powerful version of the Vega C that will fly for the first time in 2022. The Vega E launcher will further increase its competitiveness, performance, and versatility in terms of mass and volume capabilities, while bringing about a significant reduction in launch costs. The focus of development of the Vega E is the new liquid oxygen-methane upper third-stage, which will also allow for improvements in terms of environmental sustainability.
The Project Key Point with ESA and the Commission of Inquiry conducted at the end of July 2021 had a positive outcome. The ESA authorised the completion of the qualification review with the analysis of the results of the "Hardware in the loop" (HWIL) avionic tests and the updating of the qualification Data Package with certain products (Telemetry, Multi-functional Unit, Destruction Chord) that had not yet undergone their respective qualification reviews, which will be carried out in the final quarter of the year.
On July 31, 2021, Ariane 5 successfully put into orbit two geostationary telecommunications satellites, Star One D2 and EUTELSAT QUANTUM.
Star One D2 is a high-capacity, multi-mission satellite with transponder in the Ku, Ka, C and X bands that will expand broadband coverage into new regions of Central and South America to provide Internet access to under-served populations. EUTELSAT QUANTUM is to be the world's first universal
satellite able to modulate the coverage area and the strength of the telecommunication bands nearly in real time.
On August 17, 2021, Vega successfully completed mission VV19.
Flight VV19 put into orbit the Pléiades Neo 4 satellite, the second satellite of the Pléiades Neo constellation, together with 4 ride-share microsatellites.
One of these is LEDSAT, a project of Rome's "La Sapienza" University aimed at studying a lightemitting diode (LED) technology used for independent optical tracking of satellites in low Earth orbit. The others are RADCUBE and SUNSTORM, for astronomical applications, and BRO-4 for security applications.
The success of these projects once again highlighted the work of Avio and Arianespace in making Vega increasingly reliable and competitive. The European launcher has confirmed its ability to put into orbit groups of rideshare satellites alongside a primary payload. This, together with the new SSMS payload adaptor that was successfully tested during flight VV16, increases the versatility of Vega in the competitive microsatellite market and provides clients with a wider range of launch opportunities.
As reported in the "Significant Events" section of the Directors' Report, by private agreement on June 29, 2021, between Avio S.p.A. and the subsidiary Spacelab S.p.A., in which the Italian Space Agency holds a 30% stake, the price adjustment was set at Euro 8.5 million for the acquisition of the business unit related to the development, production, and commercialisation of launchers by Spacelab S.p.A. to Avio S.p.A., the original agreement for which was signed on March 1, 2018.
In an extraordinary session held on July 19, 2021, the shareholders of Spacelab S.p.A. approved the proportionate distribution of a dividend to Avio S.p.a. and the Italian Space Agency totalling Euro 8.0 million, to be taken from the price set for the acquisition of the aforementioned business unit. Furthermore, following the achievement of its mission to develop and commercialise the Vega launcher and its current status as research lab for the development of avionics applications, and as expected, the shareholders of Spacelab S.p.A. also approved a decrease in the company's equity that is in excess of current needs in the amount of approximately Euro 2.9 million.
The dividend and reduction of equity are to be paid to the shareholders of Avio S.p.A. and the Italian Space Agency as follows: 50% upon completion of the procedures for the reduction of Spacelab S.p.A. share capital and 50% by July 31, 2022.
For more information, see the "Significant events" section of the Directors' Report and section "3.30 Other current liabilities" of the Explanatory Notes.
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September 10, 2021
The BOARD OF DIRECTORS The Chief Executive Officer and General Manager Giulio Ranzo
a) were prepared in accordance with international accounting standards, recognised in the European Union pursuant to Regulation (EC) No. 1606/2002 of the European Parliament and Council of July 19, 2002;
b) correspond to the underlying accounting documents and records;
c) provide a true and fair view of the equity, economic and financial position of the issuer and of the other companies in the consolidation scope.
3.2 The Directors' Report includes a reliable analysis of the significant events in the first six months of the year and their impact on the condensed consolidated half-year financial statements, with a description of the principal risks and uncertainties to which the Group is exposed, in addition to the subsequent events and outlook. It also contains a reliable analysis of the significant transactions with related parties.
Date: September 10, 2021
Avio S.p.A.
Giulio Ranzo Chief Executive Officer (Signed)
Alessandro Agosti Executive Officer for Financial Reporting (Signed)
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