¢ Market Comment
Second half kickoff in style as AthEx fully recovered from the two-day correction and benchmark saw a new 15-year high, on the back of M&A activity which fueled rumors across the board.
General index closed at 1,885.04 points, adding 0.91% to Monday’s 1,868.02 points. The large-cap FTSE-25 index expanded 1%, ending at 4,727.08 points. The banks index obtained 1.79%, on Alpha’s return to trading with a 3.68% jump. Optima fetched 1.75%, National grew 1.52%, Piraeus earned 1.50% and Eurobank climbed 1.17%. Coca-Cola HBC advanced 2.47% and Viohalco improved 1.59%, while Sarantis conceded 3.03%. In total 65 stocks secured gains, 52 endured losses and 44 remained unchanged. Turnover amounted to €251.8m, up from Monday’s €215.2m.
In the M&A zone: Currently there are six tender offers on the table, a fact with no historical precedent for AthEx which involves Hellenic Exchanges as well. Therefore, we expect the market to keep the momentum and spread interest across the board pushing index to fresh highs in today’s session.
¢ In the Spotlight
Greece/PDMA: Today, the Hellenic Republic will auction 13 Weeks T-Bills, in book entry form, with maturity October 3, 2025. The amount to be auctioned is 500 million euro. Settlement date is July 4, 2025 (T+2). During the auction non – competitive bids can be submitted up to 20% of the auction amount. No additional non-competitive bids will be accepted on July 3, 2025. The day count convention is ACT/360.
Greece/CPI: Inflation in Greece climbed to 3.6% in June, up from 3.3% in May, according to preliminary data released by Eurostat on Tuesday, July 1. The latest figure marks one of the highest inflation rates in the European Union, ranking fifth among member states. The June figure also represents a significant jump compared to the same month in 2024, when inflation stood at 2.5%. On a month-to-month basis, Greece recorded the sharpest inflation increase across the EU. Across the eurozone, the consumer price index rose slightly to 2% in June from 1.9% in May, staying close to the European Central Bank’s inflation target. Looking at the main components of inflation in the eurozone, services are expected to post the highest annual rate in June, rising slightly to 3.3% from 3.2% in May, according to Eurostat’s preliminary data. They are followed by food, alcohol, and tobacco, which saw a modest dip to 3.1% from 3.2% the previous month. Non-energy industrial goods slowed further to 0.5% from 0.6%. Energy prices, while still in negative territory, eased their decline to -2.7% from -3.6% in May.
Hellenic Exchanges: Yesterday the company informed that it received an unsolicited, non-binding and highly conditional all share 100% takeover proposal from Euronext. The company together with its advisors, is evaluating the proposal from a strategic and financial perspective. The Board has not entered into any discussions with Euronext at this time and will respond in due course.
The potential offer is structured as a share exchange, valuing ATHEX at €6.9/share, resulting in a fixed exchange ratio of 21.029 common shares of ATHEX for each new Euronext share. Based on Euronext’s share price of €145.10 as of June 30, 2025, the potential offer would value the entire issued and to-be-issued share capital of ATHEX at €399mn on a fully diluted basis. The submission of an offer would be subject primarily to due diligence.
We had placed Hellenic Exchanges a one of our Top Picks for 2025 (December 2024 FY:25 Beta Securities Outlook) with a 12 month Fair Price of €7.20/share assuming basic KPIs of €160mn ADTV for 2025, currently at €197.05mn, and Average listed companies market Cap at €120bn, currently at €127bn.
On our projections ie FY:25 sales €61.7mn, EBITDA €29.8mn and Net income €21.83mn Hellenic Exchanges trades at a PE ratio of 16.6x and EV/EBITDA 10x. Remains Top Pick with Outperform Rating.
Aegean Air: Final day of IPO for the company’s new 7-year listed retail bond of €250mn with a coupon rate between 3.75 to 4.05%. The carrier bought on June 30 another 694 of its outstanding bonds at par value for a consideration of €701.773K and now controls 0.863% of the issue (1721 bonds).
Qualco: The company announced that its subsidiary Qualco Single Member acquired a 50.01% stake in Cenobe SA, an IT company specializing in Internet and Cyber security. Payment for the 50.01% stake was €1.235mn through a combination of cash payment to Cenobe’s current shareholders and SCI valuing Cenobe at €2.786mn (equity value).
Intralot: Intralot said that will buy Bally’s International Interactive unit in deal valued at €2.7bn in cash and stock. In details:
§ Bally’s will receive: €1.530 billion in cash and €1.136 billion in newly issued shares in the new Intralot (873,707,073 shares, at an estimated value of €1.30 per share) and expected to close in Q4:25. In order to pay the €1.530 billion cash consideration to Bally’s and to refinance part of its existing debt, Intralot has raised commitments from Citizens Bank, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Jefferies for debt financing of up to €1.6bn and will also proceed with a share capital increase of up to €400 million through an offering of shares listed on the Athens Stock Exchange.
§ Following the deal, Intralot’s founder Mr. Sokratis Kokkalis will retain a significant stake, and Bally’s will become the majority shareholder of the merged entity.
§ The deal kicks off with a tender offer as Intralot’s minority shareholder and major shareholder of Bally’s holdings Soohyung Kim acquired 6.48% stake in Intralot reaching 33.34% triggering a mandatory offer at 1.06 euro/share.
§ The new entity will continue to be listed on the Athens Exchange.
§ Bally’s Corporation is a global player in the casino and entertainment industry. The New York Stock Exchange-listed company owns and operates 19 casinos in the United States, a golf course in New York and a racetrack in Colorado. As part of its international expansion, Bally’s Corporation acquired Aspers Casino, in Newcastle, UK. Bally’s is also active in online betting, through Bally Bet, as well as online gaming through the Bally Casino platform. The company also owns Bally’s International Interactive (formerly Gamesys Group), which is an international leader in interactive gaming management and employs nearly 1,500 people. Bally’s Corporation employs a total of 11,500 people worldwide.
§ The deal will expand Intralot’s presence in the UK online gaming market and strengthen its technology offerings by incorporating Bally’s digital and casino platforms.
§ The new entity will have revenues of €1.1bn with 38% EBITDA margin and 90% cash conversion.
§ After the transaction Intralot target a leverage ratio of approximately 2.5x and a dividend payout ratio of 35% of net income with flexibility for higher distributions depending on performance and capital structure issues.
Eurobank: The bank successfully completed the pricing of €500 million senior preferred notes. The bond matures on 7 July 2028 and is callable at par on 7 July 2027 (3NC2), offering a coupon of 2.875% per annum. Settlement will take place on 7 July 2025, and the notes will be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange’s Euro MTF market. Final demand was approximately 4.5bn, i.e. an oversubscription of about 9 times, thus enabling Eurobank to raise 500 million euro at a reduced credit spread of 90bps compared to the initial 125bps indication level. The book building process attracted strong and geographically diverse demand from international investors, with the Bank receiving firm final orders at re-offer from 162 different investors. Foreign investors’ participation accounted for 94% of the issued amount of the book, with key participation from France (29%), the United Kingdom and Ireland (17%), Italy (12%) and Germany and Austria (11%). In terms of investor type, 68% were Asset Managers, 20% were Banks and Private Banks, 8% were Insurance and Pension Funds and 2% were Hedge Funds.
Interlife: The company today trades ex FY:24 gross dividend €0.20/share, net €0.19/share.
Helleniq Energy: The refiner trades today ex FY:24 gross remaining dividend €0.55/share, net €0.5225/share.
Aktor: The company’s BOD approved the spin-off of the construction and BOT divisions into 2 different entities that will be absorbed and operate under 2 new 100% subsidiaries namely Aktor Construction and Aktor Concession with 31.12.2024 transformation date.
Austriacard Holdings: On June 30, major shareholder Mr. Lykos bought 20K shares at €5.36/share for a total consideration of €107.2K.
Sarantis: On June 26, BOD Chairman Mr. K. Sarantis sold 25K shares at €13.46/share.
OTE: AGM cleared FY:24 gross dividend (adjusted for 11,084,598 treasury shares) €0.704425/share. Ex-dividend date July 3. Dividend record date July 4. Payment July 9.
Onyx: EGM greenlighted listing on ASE main market and delisting from ENA.
Lazarides: Lazarides family acquired an additional 838,717 shares in the company at €2.18/share rising its stake to 93.7% from 89.047% previously following the announcement of the tender offer initiation.
Titan: The company concluded its share buyback program acquiring over the period August 2024 to June 2025 450,964 shares for a total consideration of €16.965mn. Total treasury stands at 4.86% or 3,810,081 shares. A new share buyback program initiated as of yesterday of up to €10mn worth and will run until March 2026.
Mouzakis: Convertible bond loan of €4.7mn translated to 6,714,286 new shares in favor of existing shareholders with 1 bond for every 4.7939 old shares held.
¢ Buybacks
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