Beta Sec – Daily report 21-08-2024 Market Comment –    In the Spotlight –    Buybacks

The rally at the Athens Stock Exchange ended Tuesday after six sessions and, as on Monday, trading was thin. Athens followed other European markets in a slight decline, with investors appearing to be hesitant on limited domestic news-flow.

General index ended at 1,425.51, losing 0.47% with turnover of €67.2m, third lowest for 2024 with 15,284,847 shares changing hands. Large caps dropped 0.69%, while mid-caps rose 0.21%. Among large caps, the biggest gains were posted by construction group Ellaktor (4.04%), Athens International Airport (2.20%, closing at the intraday high) and cement firm Titan (1.55%). GEK Terna and OTE posted slight gains, 0.34% and 0.20%, respectively. Hardest hit were National Bank of Greece (1.97%), Coca-Cola HBC (1.92%), toy company Jumbo (1.48%) and Piraeus Bank (1.15%). Eurobank and Alpha Bank were tops in terms of trading volume, with 4m and 3m shares, respectively, changing hands. Eurobank’s stock was second by value (€8.04m), outdone only by National Bank (€9.46m).

Market on hold, tight range/low volume may keep the consolidation mood in domestic market.

Greece/PDMA: Public Debt Agency will auction today €500mn treasury bills with 6-month duration. Settlement date on August 23. Previous auction yield at 3.3%.

Greece/Airports: The 22 regional airports not yet privatized, and controlled by the Civil Aviation Authority, are in urgent need of repairs and expansion in order to accommodate increased demand: In the first half of 2024, traffic rose 6.34% to 4,032,909 passengers, testing the limits of the airports’ capabilities. The country’s privatization fund believes the airports need serious government investment to make them attractive to prospective buyers. The fund, along with the government, are searching for a funding solution that will not fall afoul of EU restrictions on subsidies.

Note that in the seven-month period of 2024 civil airports in Greece posted an increase of 9.5% in traffic which corresponds to 42.5m passengers. With regards to flights the respective figure for the seven-month period is 328.3k take-offs and landings an increase of 6.9% vs. the 7M:24.

Greece/energy Sector: Reportedly, the RES special account, which serves as the primary fund for payments to renewable energy producers, has been experiencing a growing deficit. According to latest data from DAPEEP, the RES market operator, this deficit expanded to 215 million euros in May and further increased to 250 million euros in June. Also new RES unit installations decreased in May and June, reaching 85 MW for the two-month period, the operator’s data showed. The majority of these installations came from the photovoltaics sub-sector, while hydropower installations followed in the distance, adding just 2.2 MW. No wind-energy unit facilities were installed in May and June, the data showed. Greece’s total installed RES capacity, according to the DAPEEP data, has now reached 13,098 MW, made up of 5,193 MW from wind energy, 7,207 MW from photovoltaic systems, 299 MW from small-scale hydropower plants, 142 MW from biomass units, and 255 MW from combined heat and power (CHP) units

Sarantis: H1:24 results out on September 2^nd after market. Conference call on Tuesday September 3^rd at 16:00 GR-Time.

Attica Bank: Reportedly, the bank that will result from the merger of Attica Bank and Pancreta Bank is aiming at becoming a strong fifth pole in Greek banking, besides the current “big four” (Alpha, Eurobank, National, Piraeus). Management has set ambitious goals: returning to profitability in 2025 after cleaning up its bad loans and taking the losses resulting from securitization; distributing a dividend as soon as 2028; and attaining 9% in share of new loans, nearly doubling its combined loan portfolio.

The combined bank’s management – Attica will actually absorb Pancreta – sees an opportunity in financing small and very small enterprises.

Management expects the merged bank to turn a profit of €80 million in 2025 and triple it by 2028. Dividend will rise fast to reach €800 million by 2034, allowing the Financial Stability Fund to begin recouping its investments. Profit growth will be achieved partly by taking advantage of the merger to close excess branches and reduce the number of personnel, initially through people taking voluntary redundancy or retirement. The merger is set to be approved at an Attica shareholders meeting on September 3.

Kri – Kri: Shares go ex-dividend tomorrow (0.35 eur/share gross). Payment starts on August 28.

METLEN: Reportedly the group inaugurated a second p/v park in Chile. The park will generate energy equal to the annual consumption of more than 85,000 households, reducing emissions by more than 80,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.

Piraeus Port: Container traffic through Piraeus declined 4.8%, bringing the overall decline since the beginning of the year to 11.7%. The crisis has mostly hit Eastern Mediterranean ports, with merchant traffic shifting to the Western Mediterranean and Northern Europe. Despite the drop rate decelerated vs. previous months which posted double digit decline.

NBG: Reportedly, the placement of 18.5% stake of HSF is expected to take place late September early October. 

EKTER: Reportedly the Group is seeking to upgrade its construction license to 7^th grade, the highest degree which allow companies to participate in more complex public tenders and maintain a construction backlog of over €130m.