Letter to shareholders

President’s letter

Rosario Martínez Manzanedo

Dear shareholders,

It gives me a great sense of pride to present the 2019 Sustainability Report. This was a year in which there was important news for the business in the form of the incorporation of Grupo Red Eléctrica into our shareholders, and with them we hope to continue building a great company worldwide.

This report covers the initiatives that we have developed in social, environmental and corporate governance fields in 2019. These actions are aligned with HISPASAT’s Sustainability Policy, which shows the strength of our commitment to ethical and transparent management, to respect for the environment and to the progress of the communities where we operate. A future commitment that channels our contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals set out in the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda and guides our decision-making, aware of and responsible for the fact that, today, all countries must have reliable and quality communication services.

With these goals as a target, a decade full of challenges and opportunities opens before all of us, during which we will continue to make progress in the development of technological solutions with which we aspire to continue being an international benchmark operator, offering opportunities to people thanks to telecommunications, interconnecting communities, providing satellite services that help companies from all sectors to develop their businesses efficiently anywhere, bringing entertainment closer to citizens and supporting innovative projects.

And we will do it, as we have up to present, by seeking excellence. At HISPASAT we conceive of this in a global way: at the technical level, which ensures the quality of our services and reinforces our customers’ trust in us; in business management, essential to add value for our shareholders; and in our commitment to sustainability, which looks to share the value generated by our activities with all of society and to do so ethically, working with the highest degree of stringency in all areas.

We know that satellites play a key role in bridging the digital divide. In this context, we have made progress this year with actions to facilitate connectivity in rural and isolated areas in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and Spain. In Spain we have also launched two pilot projects to promote digital transformation in the agri-food sector, and we want to continue working on innovative projects that contribute to making telecommunications universal, without leaving anyone out of the development opportunities that they offer us.

For HISPASAT, our professionals are a critical asset and, in this arena, we maintain a firm commitment to their training and well-being, and we promote talent in an inclusive manner, striving for stable employment and eradicating biases and discrimination of any kind. Accordingly, we feel proud of the work that we are doing to boost technical vocations for women, with the aim of encouraging a greater presence of women in our industry. I would also like to point out that in 2019 we launched a project to certify HISPASAT as a Family-friendly Company (EFR), and the first initiatives related to the company’s Digital Transformation Strategy were implemented.

In the field of environmental management, I would like to highlight, among other initiatives, the approval this year of the installation of a photovoltaic plant at the satellite control centre at Arganda del Rey (Madrid), with the aim of reducing our ecological footprint.

I want to remember here some of the social projects that HISPASAT warmly supports, such as the wheelchair basketball school run by the Fundación Estudiantes and the Madrid Spina Bifida Association, which promotes the learning and inclusion of young people with disabilities, and the Fan 3 Channel, which the Fundación Atresmedia broadcasts in 165 hospitals in Spain to bring entertainment and education to hospitalised children.

The company is also a strong supporter of culture and, in this sense, I would like to mention our cooperation with the Foundation of the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, bringing opera to cities and towns across Spain, as well as to other countries. We also collaborate with the Complutense University of Madrid to share the summer courses that it organises in El Escorial.

I bid you farewell by thanking all HISPASAT professionals, the heart and soul of the company, who every day make it possible to successfully meet the expectations of our stakeholders, and who support us as a responsible and sustainable organisation.

Chief Executive Officer’s letter

Miguel Ángel Panduro

Dear shareholders,

Introducing the 2019 HISPASAT Sustainability Report is a double source of pride for me, as Chief Executive Officer and also as a member of the HISPASAT team.

This report brings together the company’s responses to the challenges of an increasingly connected and demanding society, with greater environmental awareness and more power to penalise or reward how companies behave. A society where business transparency is no longer a way to differentiate, but an inseparable element of proper management.

Aware of the impact of our activities on suppliers, customers, shareholders, employees and the entire community where we live and work, in this report we present the results of the actions carried out in accordance with the axes of our 2015-2020 Sustainability Plan, which focuses on ethical and responsible management that respects the environment and drives progress in the community. We are quite certain that our activity will only have true value if it is carried out in compliance with strict ethical criteria and if its benefits go beyond dividends to extend to the whole of society.

We work every day to ensure that telecommunications can make economic, leisure and security activities possible, as well as research and development on applications that contribute to improving our lives, putting the focus on innovation and excellence and having the best talent for it. This is demonstrated by both the certifications and recognitions that the company achieves or renews every year and, above all, the results that I invite you to consult on this website.

I would like to convey my warmest thanks to all who make HISPASAT a committed company. We will continue to work to put telecommunications at the service of people and to contribute to the advancement of society.