“Bullish” for Greek banks, Mytileneos expands and Synergy hides investment opportunities

Analysts are still “bullish” for Greek banks, and are starting to improve on the new estimates. The strong outlook for the sector, higher interest rates from the European Central Bank, the prospect of a dividend as well as a divestment of the HFSF keep the mood positive and this was also reflected in the stock market yesterday.

the deutsche Bank, but also eurox, And with the new reports, they see that the outperformance of Greek banks is far from over. The foreign house has Alpha Bank as its top choice and Euroxx has Eurobank as its top choice. The performance of the banking sector (+60% YTD) according to DB demonstrates the rapid change in investor sentiment following the strong performance witnessed in net interest income due to interest rates, cost control and improving loan asset quality. Overall, Deutsche Bank expects the strong performance to continue, with national insurance likely to peak in the third quarter of 2024 due to higher financing costs, and then stabilize before starting to decline in 2024.

to Alpha Bank Gives a target price of €2 with an upside margin of 35% and a buy recommendation. to Eurobank Gives a target price of €2.05 with a margin of 35% also and a buy recommendation, while waiting with a target price of €3.30 gives Piraeus and the National Bank With a target price of 7.10 EUR and an upside margin of 13%.

For its part, Euroxx says that after a 65% rise since the beginning of the year, the main question among investors is whether there is value to Greek banks or whether it is time to turn a profit.

The brokerage resumes coverage of systemic banks and says the rally is far from over and there is still significant long-term value. Greek banks trade at an average of 0.7 times tangible equity and with a return of more than 13% on equity and a profit rate in 2023 close to 5 times. Which is equivalent to a 10-20% discount compared to the corresponding branches in Europe. It gives a Buy recommendation to all 4 systemic banks and a target price of €8.5 for the National Bank, €2.3 for Eurobank, €4.6 for Piraeus and €2.10 for Alpha Bank.

Management is faithful to its obligations Mytileneus And it announced another acquisition, the fourth in the past year, specifically the acquisition of EfaEnergy for 4.5 million euros. It is reported that it has also acquired Watt+Volt, Unison, and Volterra. The move is part of a plan to expand its customer base and continue to position itself vertically in the retail energy supply market, with a focus in this case on natural gas.

The listed company is the leading supplier and provider of natural gas in Greece and the wider South East European region, with an expanded supply portfolio itself, through the transportation of LNG cargoes, but also the transportation of natural gas via pipeline with the potential for export activity.

And don’t forget that In 2010, Mytileneos paved the way for the liberalization of the natural gas market in Greece, as it was the first private company to enter the supply and trade of natural gas in the country, “breaking” the state monopoly and guaranteeing its customers a safe life and a competitive supply of natural gas. With the latest acquisition, it will increase its market share by adding another 11,000 customers, mostly related to natural gas supplies, mainly in Central Macedonia and Thessaly.

“Lukumi” came to some correction energy In the range of 6.2-6.3 euros, where in a few sessions they achieved an easy and risk-free 10%. In addition, the stock is once again eyeing its highs, which are just over €7, as expectations remain strong, the backlog remains at very high levels and with several projects executed, new ones come in.

The group operates with complete machines because it never stops filling jobs and invests in increasing production capacity.

Five banks were downgraded by one notch Standard & Poor’s World Rankings At the same time, he gave a negative view to others as well, attributing these actions to today’s difficult lending environment. Standard & Poor’s downgraded KeyCorp and Comerica Inc. Valley National Bancorp and UMB Financial Corp. and Associated Bank.

S&P cites in particular the example of Comerica and its deposit trajectory, which recorded a significant decline of $14 billion compared to the first half of 2022. S&P also notes as a negative development the higher percentage of commercial and uninsured deposits.

And, as Standard & Poor’s points out, the four other downgraded banks face similar problems. It is reported that the collapse of the Silicon Valley bank forced many regional banks to raise interest rates on deposits in order to prevent the flight of depositors. This reduced their profitability.

It is noteworthy that two weeks ago, the other major rating agency, Moody’s, caused an initial turmoil in the markets by announcing a downgrade of Bank of New York Mellon, State Street and Northern Trust.

The index rose by 3.5 points rice pricesFrom the United Nations Food and Health Organization in July. The index tracks prices in major exporting countries and rose to 129.7 points, compared to 126.2 points in June, marking a 12-year high.

This development came after the imposition of a ban on rice exports from India, in addition to adverse weather conditions that affected the production and supply of basic foodstuffs in Asia. According to market analysts, any increases in the price of rice and other food items will affect food price inflation near the end of 2023 or early 2024.

Japan’s Nomura Finance House considers the country most vulnerable to rising food prices, the Philippines. Rice alone in this country represents 8.9% of the consumer price basket.

The evolution of rising rice prices occurs during a period of downward trend in food prices. In fact, according to the FAO of the United Nations, food prices as a whole decreased by about 23% compared to last March.

China, the largest rice producer and consumer, has enough supplies for at least eight months, based on its annual needs, even though three provinces that produce a quarter of the country’s rice are threatened by devastating floods.

The world’s largest IPO this year may be the British IPO from ARM, But its preference to sell its shares in New York rather than London is causing frustration in its home market. The Cambridge-based ARM microprocessor designer is controlled by the Softbank Group. Monday’s announcement of an IPO in New York was the latest blow to the London Stock Exchange, which is seeing more companies exiting than entering.

its strategists HSBC There is a question whether the London Stock Exchange has become increasingly less important relative to the competition, given the outflows of money, weak growth and the underweight of British equity capital in global indices over the past 20 years. The underwriters of the ARM IPO are the investment banks Barclays, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Mizuho. The company is targeting a valuation of $60-70 billion.

Swedish startup Northvault continues its impressive expansion. Europe’s largest maker of electric vehicle batteries and energy storage announced yesterday that it has secured an additional $1.2 billion in financing from international companies, major international investors and pension funds.

The company’s official announcement states that the new financing is an extension of the $1.1 billion bond loan it issued in July 2022 and is convertible into Northvolt shares. Much of the $1.2 billion has been covered by the large investment firm Blackrock (BRK NYSE) and three large Canadian institutional investors who manage the investments of pension funds, holdings of state-owned companies and organizations that are overseen by the province of Ontario.

In addition to these investors, many others, such as the auto industry, participated in the additional financing Volkswagen (VOW3 XETRA), Baillie Gifford fund manager, Goldman Sachs (GS NYSE) and many more. Indicative of the Swedish company’s effort to quickly become a major global powerhouse in the field of batteries, the total financing it has obtained in recent years from various investors, whether by issuing stocks or bonds, exceeds $9 billion.

Even more impressive is the fact that it has already received $55 billion worth of orders from major customers such as the auto industry BMW (BMW XETRA) for the automotive industry Volvo cars (VOLCAR-B STOCKHOLM), manufacturer of energy storage systems Fluence energy (FLNC NASDAQ), car manufacturer Volkswagen, and heavy-duty truck manufacturer Scania (a member of the wider Volkswagen Group).

The company’s announcement indicates that the additional financing demonstrates the strong interest of investors in Northvolt’s development and will help it successfully respond to the huge demand for environmentally friendly battery systems in Europe and North America. The reference to the environment is linked to the company’s great efforts to use as much “green” energy as possible in its factories. Announcing the new funding, Northvolt briefed investors on the progress being made at its Polish plant in Gdansk, which assembles energy storage systems for industrial use.

As the company said, the first energy storage systems have been successfully assembled and deliveries to customers are expected to begin by the end of the year. What has not been officially announced is progress in discussions with the Canadian government and local authorities on building an electric vehicle battery factory outside of Montreal in Quebec. According to international press information, an agreement is almost certain.

As Bloomberg reported a few weeks ago, the investment will be in the region of $5.3 billion and a large part of it will be funded by the Canadian government. Choosing Quebec makes a lot of sense because it is one of the largest producers of energy from hydroelectric plants and Northvault focuses on “green” energy.

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