Companies that only look forward

By Apostolos Manthos

With a record quarterly performance due to the FIFA World Cup Qatar, OPAP ended the fourth quarter of 2022 to form annual net income before contributions to €1.939 billion from €1.538 in 2021, recording an increase of 26%. Meanwhile, EBITDA was €736m from €550.3m in 2021, up 38.5% on a recurring basis, as net profit closed at €592.3m instead of €259.4m, representing a whopping 128.3% rise. .

Very bullish, as mentioned earlier, was the last quarter of 2022 as net profit jumped to €306.5m, up 277.6%, including a €181.3m gain on the sale of Betano. Net earnings per share for 2022 was €0.861 from €0.2391 in 2021 with an adjusted net profit margin close to 23.6% from 17.3% in 2021.

Finally, OPAP rewards its shareholders with a distribution of €1.45, €0.30 of which was already given last November as pre-dividends. As for his share, we last mentioned it in mid-January when by general index the market was going +16.45% and was noticeably lagging -5.24% around €13. However, the move then showed that something was “cooking”, giving €14.70 as the initial target. Now, therefore, OPAP stock not only moved above the target of €14.70, but then tried to escape from the shackles of the higher area between €15.35 and €15.00. And on top of that nothing major comes in at 16€. Important supports for a possible return are at 14.46 and 14.04 EUR, where the important previous resistance line ‘Q’ also intersects.

Here, then, is the largest airline in Greece and at the same time the national carrier, Aegean Airlines (AREAG), which managed to get through the painful crisis of the pandemic and comes today to announce the doubling of consolidated turnover for 2022 compared to 2021, closing at 1.34 billion euros, which is now 2% before 2019.

The Aegean region, as everything shows, has closed the tranche of the epidemic and the loss-making results by drawing the first big line of net profitability on the order of €106.8m from losses -57.6m € in 2021 with average revenue in fact per seat kilometre. To €8.3 from €6.4 in 2021, a solid increase of around +30%.

Attention, the group with a board capital of 648 million euros had cash available on 31.12.2022 at 463.7 million euros, but its total assets now exceed 2 billion euros from the 1, 54 billion euros that were in 2021. For 2023, now The group, as we mentioned in a previous post at the end of last year, when the stock was receiving prices at 5.40 euros, is preparing to fly over me with this of course it will also mean the price of the stock. We must now look at the Aegean airline, which will now operate with 76 aircraft offering a total of 18 million seats with new aircraft technology providing significant fuel savings per seat offered only at the front.

So the first indications for the current year are particularly encouraging with passengers on international flights within the first two months, and ticket sales for the summer season well exceeding the corresponding figures for pre-pandemic 2019. Meanwhile, another important component is demonstrating the great dynamics of the group listed. On March 15, 2023, AEGEAN completed the repayment of the last part of the emergency loan it received from the four major Greek banks during the pandemic, three years ahead of schedule.

Graphically, after breaking the Eurozone 6.40 upwards, the stock found itself flying towards the resistance area from 7.80 to 7.60 Euros. But now, after ‘imposing’ the bearish expansion on the entire market, the stock has made a healthy pullback towards the holding area from 7.20 to 6.90, providing opportunity for a gradual repositioning. However, despite any necessary setbacks in the share price – to supply investors – the main objective of the upward “S” pivot is to enter the Aegean in the €7.80 to €8.70 range it traded at the beginning of 2020 and 2018. Forget, after all Thing is, Aegean Airlines is one of the few companies listed on the Athens Stock Exchange where one can invest in the growing Greek tourism.

* Apostolos Manthos is responsible for technical analysis and investment strategy

* Republished from Kefalio newspaper.