PRESS RELEASE

AutoWallis appoints an ESG Director and consultant

Budapest, July 25, 2022 - As the next step in preparing for ESG certification, the AutoWallis Group has appointed a new ESG Director and has selected a consultant to support the certification process. The listed automotive company aims to have the members of the Group, present in 14 countries in the region, operate along the lines of a uniform ESG strategy and to prioritize sustainability goals when making their decisions.

The AutoWallis Group has taken another step in the interest of obtaining ESG certification: while retaining his current position, Gábor Székely, Director of Investor Relations, will be responsible for preparing the company for ESG certification. Concurrently to appointing an ESG Director, the company listed in the Premium category of the Budapest Stock Exchange (BÉT) continues to strengthen its sustainability approach in its everyday business. The company has appointed Deloitte to prepare its ESG report and help work out the measures

necessary for obtaining its ESG certification as quickly as possible. AutoWallis chose the consultancy firm not only because it has a major team of ESG experts in Hungary but because it also has significant experience in the automotive industry.

The aim of AutoWallis, present in 14 countries in the region, is to ensure that sustainability-related factors are suitably validated to the correct extent in all areas of the operations of the Group's members. Investor Relations & ESG Director Gábor Székely explained that a priority is to recycle as much of their waste resulting from operations as possible, to make the Group's day-to-day operations more energy efficient, to increase the use of renewable energy sources, and to favor environmentally responsible suppliers. In addition, the Group wishes to increase its social commitments and to meet the targets specified in the ESG framework as part of corporate governance.

The expert added that AutoWallis has already taken a number of measures in addition to the ESG approach. For example, AutoWallis is the first company listed in the Premium Category of the Budapest Stock Exchange to develop a Green Finance Framework, based on which it successfully issued green bonds. Even now, the Group devotes special attention to sustainable operations. As a recent example, the latest car dealerships and service centers in Budapest and Ljubljana, as well as Sixt's technical base in Vecsés, were designed and built with green requirements in mind. AutoWallis's Investor Relations & ESG Director explained that obtaining the ESG certification, planned for no later than 2024, has a number of positive aspects in addition to the obvious environmental and social advantages. Of these, he highlighted that the certification would allow those investment funds to purchase the company's shares that prefer the shares of companies committed to sustainability. In addition, AutoWallis will have better access to certain sources of funding and, in certain tenders and public procurement processes, environmentally conscious companies with ESG certification will also enjoy tangible business advantages over market players that are not responsive to sustainable management, social, and governance issues. According to

Gábor Székely, as business leaders, employees, consumers, and investors, it is important to pay attention to our environment and to strive to transform our business decisions and consumption habits in response to the growing environmental and social challenges.

AutoWallis Group

AutoWallis Plc., a company listed in the Premium category of the Budapest Stock Exchange, as well as in the BUX and BUMIX indices, aims to become a major vehicle trading company and mobility service provider in the Central and Eastern European region by the end of the decade and to expand its automotive investment-focused investment portfolio through acquisitions. The AutoWallis Group is present in 14 countries of the Central and Eastern European region (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia), where it is engaged in the retail and wholesale of vehicles, parts, and accessories, in repair and maintenance services, as well as in short- and long-term vehicle rentals. The brands represented by the group include BMW cars and motorbikes, Dacia, Isuzu, Jaguar, Land Rover, Maserati, MINI, Nissan, Opel, Peugeot, Renault, SsangYong, Suzuki, and Toyota, as well as Saab spare vehicle parts, and Sixt rent-a-car. AutoWallis is the two-time recipient of the "The Share Capital Increase of the Year" award at Best of BSE Award Galas (2020, 2021). www.autowallis.hu www.facebook.com/AutoWallis

Further information:

Dániel R. Kovács, Financial Communications

Mobile: +36-20-771-8710

E-mail: r.kovacs@fincomm.hu

Attachments

  • Original Link
  • Original Document
  • Permalink

Disclaimer

AutoWallis plc published this content on 25 July 2022 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 25 July 2022 17:35:04 UTC.