Hera S p A : Group part of the 2021 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index

press release

Bologna, 25 January 2021

Hera a Top Employer for the 12th time

The Group, after gaining recognition as the best company in Italy in 2020, has once again obtained this certification of excellence in managing human resources. This comes as a reward for its strategy focused on people, with investments in welfare, training and diversity, with an organisation promoting agility in work and digitalisation

A company's workers are the true key to its success. The Hera Group knows this well, and continues to dedicate resources, attention and commitment to its team of over 9,000 employees. And the results are clear to all, as is shown by Top Employer, an international certification of excellence in human resource management, awarded to Hera in 2021 as well, for the 12th consecutive year. This recognition comes from the Holland-based Top Employer Institute, which carries out research on the quality of human resource management, examining over 1,600 businesses.

Hera, recognised as the best company in 2020, has once again been certified as a Top Employer for its business strategies, in which attention towards human resources has always been fundamental, thanks to its best practices regarding welfare, working conditions, development and training, diversity and innovation. The Group, indeed, puts people at the centre of its policies, with processes designed from the outset to fit its employees and to increase and innovate their skills, guaranteeing paths in mobility and development and favouring self-learning.

The Group also stands out for its organisational methods, which promote worker agility and digitalisation, with a smart working project launched in 2017 that created the bases to effectively face the emergency that struck our country, with no effect on service quality and efficiency, protecting at the same time the health and safety of its employees and customers. In 2020, Hera immediately introduced a range of measures that ensured it would remain close to its workers: from upgrading technological tools favouring collaboration and communication among employees, to redesigning training in order to meet new obligations concerning remote work, and setting in place a Covid-19 insurance policy for its employees, with all expenses covered by the company.

Hera's most outstanding human resource policies include Hextra, the integrated corporate welfare plan intended for all Group employees, investments for which reached 4.5 million euro in 2020 alone. The Group also offers its employees campaigns aimed at awareness, prevention, cure, overall wellbeing and education.

Hera has also confirmed its ranking among the leading Italian businesses that invest in their employees' personal and professional development, with 26 hours of training per capita each year and a total of roughly 236,000 hours provided, thanks to investments coming to approximately 2 million euro. In this area, a fundamental role is played by HerAcademy, the Group's corporate university that allows it to communicate with businesses and the main local institutions. Furthermore, through the Hera Educational

set of initiatives, the Group constantly reinforces its role in the area served, consolidating its partnerships with various figures in the educational system.

Lastly, a special focus goes to sustainability and guaranteeing equal opportunity, inclusion and diversity valorisation. This is proved by the Group's presence in the 2020 Refinitiv "Diversity & Inclusion Index" 2020 (formerly Thomson Reuters) and its entrance in the 2020 "Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index". In November 2020, as regards ESG factors, which also cover human resource management and development, Hera was recognised as "Industry leader" and included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index World and Europe, one of the most authoritative stock market indices evaluating social responsibility, which brings together the companies showing the best sustainability performances in the world.

"We are proud to receive this certification in 2021 as well, which attests once again to the investments we make in human resources", states the Hera Group's Executive Chairman, Tomaso Tommasi di Vignano. "This recognition is all the more significant in a complex period such as the present, where we have proven our ability to react to difficulties and show resilience, obtaining quality in our results, aiming at sustainability and creating value for stakeholders and the area served. We have reached this goal thanks to the work done by all our employees, and we wish to continue investing in them, providing wellbeing, training and development, and offering the best possible working conditions within an inclusive and participative context".

https://eng.gruppohera.it/group/

JENS KLINT HANSEN

Head of Investor Relations

Ph.: + 39 051 287 737

e-mail:[e-mail]