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 payattention to our environment and to strive to transform our business decisions and consumptionhabits in response to the growing environmental and social challenges.

‍