The hidden value of OPAP, the MIG win and the Autohellas jump

Eurobank Equities, for those who remember and follow analyst reports, was the first to discover the “hidden value” in OPAP, which was nothing but the prepayment of the end games that then unlocked significant value for the stock. Then select the hidden value from the voluntary renewal of franchise licenses, which gives a value of €4 per share.

Now, it’s focused on another source of value creation, Stoiximan’s lower effective tax rate due to Malta’s tax refund system, along with the potential gain from selling the stake to Betano.

Combined, they amount to €1.3 per share, Eurobank Equities says, and raised its price target to €17.90 from €16.60. At its price target, the stock plays to an EV/EBITDA ratio (2023) of 8.7 times, or a small premium over the agency’s historical average, but again at a discount to better peers like Fluttes and Entain.

OPAP shares are up 17% year-to-date, maintaining a solid dividend yield of close to 9%, with management estimating revenue of €2.06-2.14 billion in 2023 and EBITDA of €740-760 million. To continue giving high dividends to shareholders and more than 1 euro per share.

The trading volume of MIG rose yesterday, and apparently, on the one hand, the competition committee of Piraeus Bank approved the takeover of MIG, and on the other hand, the imminent expiration of the public offer on April 21 caused the Iliopoulos side to liquidate it. Participation, or even most of it. It should be noted that the shareholder group that supported Marios Iliopoulos received a marginally lower percentage of 13%. As a result, we can say that Mr. Iliopoulos is one of the winners, as he managed to buy at a low price and increase the price with his moves. On the other hand, MIG’s transaction with Strix will be completed and the Attica Group will be transferred, thus parent MIG will be freed from loans, while Piraeus Bank will also improve its balance sheet.

Edison re-covered Thrace’s plastic share of €8.23. The report helped the stock in yesterday’s session, which has been on the sidelines for months, so to speak, despite the management’s estimates of good profitability, which gave attractive numbers. Even its stock purchases stopped long ago. Edison estimates the stock is trading at 9.5 times 2024 earnings and 11.1 times 2023 earnings. While it expects the group to face some challenges in 2023 on demand and costs, it sees accelerated growth and positive cash flows in 2024. The stock gained more From 3% yesterday with the price reaching €4.37, well below Edison’s fair price.

Autohelas shares rose to new highs yesterday, ahead of today’s general meeting, which will, among other things, approve a dividend of 0.65 euros per share. It will be cut off on April 24th. Of course, the stock’s move is not surprising as it is fully supported by fundamentals as well as expectations. The results for 2022 were particularly positive and management estimates indicate that they will try to achieve similar profits in 2023 as well, while it was emphasized in the analyst briefing that they are not considered overborrowing. On the contrary, Mr. Vasilakis said at the time that compared to his counterparts abroad, he has less influence. So it can continue to invest in order to grow and continue to make good profits.

The improvement in the financial situation, as well as the investment demand, which was demonstrated by – more than five times – coverage of the reissue of ten-year bonds, reflects the positive course of the economy.

This largely contributed to an increase in tax revenue of €1.5 billion in the first quarter of the year, which closed with an increase of €3 billion in the primary result and a primary surplus of €211 million at the general government level.

The environment of financial stability and better economic performance is also confirmed by international organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund and the European Union, as well as rating agencies. Especially with regard to the trajectory of the net revenues of the state budget, it amounted to 16.83 billion euros, or 15.6% above the target. Even the €334 million increase in public investment budget revenues, which amounted to €1.68 billion, against the €1.34 billion target, is also significant.

Investment bank Goldman Sachs has sold a portion of its retail loan portfolio and plans to sell the rest, it said Tuesday on its first-quarter earnings call. Goldman Sachs’ earnings were down 18% from the same quarter a year ago, while revenue fell short of market expectations. The group’s management believes it should focus on making Goldman a “wall Street bank”. In this vein, he is also considering selling GreenSky, which he acquired a year ago.

The first quarter was a tough one for Goldman’s traditional operations, investment banking and trading, as revenue fell, as for most of the big banks. However, income from wealth management services has increased. The first-quarter profit was $3.23 billion.

Competitors JPMorgan, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, which have major retail banking arms, fared better with JPMorgan posting record first-quarter revenue. All banks saw an increase in net interest income and large deposit inflows as savers showed their preference for big banks during the banking turmoil in March. Goldman’s revenue was $12.2 billion, down 5% year over year.

Paris may be reeling from protests against President Macron’s insurance reform, but the French capital appears to be the European city that has benefited more than any since the UK’s exit from the European Union.

We are referring to the “migration” of major banking and investment firms from London to various European financial centres. From the related Bloomberg report, we learn that Paris has welcomed a large number of banks and investment banks that have left London or reduced their presence there due to Brexit. Other cities that have benefited, according to the report, are Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Dublin, Milan, Madrid and even Warsaw. But Paris seems to be the preferred destination for those who “get away” from London.

The increase in the number of CEOs of major financial institutions in Paris is impressive. Despite the fact that London is still by far the largest financial center in Europe by number of employees, Paris is now becoming a very important center as well. In the offices of JPMorgan Chase (JPM NYSE) in the City of Light, there are currently approximately 550 CEOs working, which is 22 times more than in 2019. The number of 600 employees in the offices of Bank of America (BAC NYSE) is six times more than previous period.

New executives are also filling the offices of Morgan Stanley (MS NYSE) while the international markets team at Goldman Sachs (GS NYSE) has doubled in size in the past two years and is on track to grow even further. An interesting statistic that shows the large influx of new CEOs into Paris is the number of investment bankers now in the city.

They have passed 250 compared to just over 140 in 2017. Accordingly, in Frankfurt they have only exceeded 125 compared to 105 in 2017. Referring to this issue, French Central Bank Governor François Villeroy de Gallo recently said that the city is the only company that It attracted executives from all sectors of the financial industry, unlike the rest of the eurozone which tried to attract those leaving London due to Brexit.

The French banker argued that this movement had taken on a permanent character and did not appear to be slowing down. In addition to the big banks, Paris also began to attract many hedge funds and other similar businesses. The rationale for the preference for Paris shown by large corporations and their executives leaving London is that, like the British capital, the French capital has been megacities with global influence for centuries.

This means that moving from one to the other does not change their lifestyle much, which is not the case for the rest of the Eurozone cities that aspire to take over the financial industry.

Newly launched cryptocurrency $PEPE is up 250% in a new frantic bull run for memecoin that is capturing the attention of the cryptocurrency community.

PEPE, a new cryptocurrency released on the Ethereum blockchain network that is named after the very popular cartoon character turned meme, Pepe the Frog, has already had a market capitalization of over $110 million in less than five days since its launch, making it the sixth largest memecoin. in terms of market value.

Speculators who manage to invest in these small cryptocurrencies in the early stages are already making astronomical profits reminiscent of the dog logo cryptocurrency frenzy that occurred in 2021 when DOGE and SHIB cryptocurrencies reached all-time highs.

On the one hand, memecoins make cryptocurrencies more fun and accessible. On the other hand, they confirm the criticisms of many that it is pure gambling, because it does not offer any innovation.

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