abertis group maintains for 2008 its growth forecast and strategy of international expansion and diversification, analysing potential business opportunities using criteria of discernment, rigour and long-term commitment in its investments. This was reiterated today by abertis Chairman Isidre Fainé and Chief Executive Officer Salvador Alemany at the abertis General Shareholders’ Meeting held in Barcelona.

In this regard, Isidre Fainé pointed out that abertis “is committed to ongoing growth based on the principles of prudence, analysis and a sense of reality," and listed a series of countries to be considered in the study of possible business opportunities: Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Chile, Mexico, Brazil, the United States and the countries making up the expanded European Union.

Along the same lines, abertis CEO Salvador Alemany assured shareholders that “we are committed to growth in a market that continues to present opportunities, though we will be more discerning, looking for projects which have higher capital requirements and thus lower debt; and also likely more reasonable prices, and possibly fewer competitors, but in a market which is competitive as ever." “If we maintain our growth forecast, it's because in the current environment it is necessary to use not more prudence than we had already been using, but rather the same: the same rigour, the same discernment and the same commitment.”

Both Isidre Fainé and Salvador Alemany stressed that, after abertis consolidated its international presence in 2006 with the addition of the French toll road concessionaire sanef, in 2007 the group "confirmed and enhanced a trajectory shaped by a capacity for expansion and by the remarkable growth of all of our business indicators.”

According to the abertis CEO, “the strength of 2007 earnings and our constant attention to identifying and pinning down expansion opportunities allow us to maintain our growth forecasts in an environment that is doubtless more uncertain and complex."