Manos Chatzidakis

Manos Chatzidakis	9:54 π.μ. (Πριν από 27 λεπτά)

Market Comment Buyers took the upper hand after the first half of yesterday’s session absorbing modest intraday offer coming from profit taking trades and finally leading General Index to fourth consecutive positive day closing at the day’s range high despite relative low volumes.  Rumors for a potential credit rating upgrade keep momentum positive while investors interest is becoming more selective as General Index has considerable weekly short term gains (4.53%).  Market may continue its short range volatility pattern along with low volumes in today’s session as news flow could be described as limited. In the Spotlight Greece/Banking Sector:   Bank deposits decreased by 178 million euros in August, taking the total for household savings and enterprises’ ready cash to 162.2 billion euros, according to Bank of Greece data released on Thursday.  At the same time credit continued to shrink, at a rate of 3.9 percent, bringing the total of private sector loan debts to 221.8 billion euros from 222.4 billion euros in July. The net flow of corporate and household funding was negative as loan repayments exceeded loans issued by 823 million euros. Jumbo (Results 12M 2012): Jumbo announced a strong set of results despite the loss from Cypriot deposits haircut. Specifically:  Gross margin of the Group eased by 0.88% at 52,33% from 53,21% at the previous year as the Euro / dollar exchange rate performed better than it was expected and the transportation costs rose less than initially anticipated. Consolidated EBITDA reached €110,39 million from €134,42 million at the previous year implying a decrease of -17,88% due to loss approximately of €23,58 million concerning the impairment of the subsidiary’s company deposits at the Bank of Cyprus. On a comparable base, excluding the above extraordinary event the Group’s EBITDA for the financial year 2012/2013 would had been at € 133,97 million decreased by -0,34%. Net profit of the Group reached € 73,96 million decreased by approximately -23,99% y-o-y. The company’s management will propose to the Annual General Meeting that will be held on 6.11.2013 the non distribution of dividend for the financial year ended in June 2013 as its intention is the full repayment of the bond loan of EUR 145 million that matures in May 2014. Cash at the end of June 2013 stood at €170m Management guidance for 2014 is expecting sales growth between 2-4% while bottom line estimate stands at €75m, based on higher freight rates estimate.  Until December 2013, the opening of the two leased hyperstores in Romania, one in Timisoara (13.000 sqm) and the other in Bucharest (14.000 sqm) is expected as well as the opening of the new leased store in Paphos of Cyprus (10.000 sqm). During the second half of the current financial year the opening of one owned store in Northern Greece (9.000 sqm) is expected. Jumbo Results 12M 2013 Estimates 12M'13 In thous. euro 2012 2013 Δ  12M 13 E Δ (Est) Sales 494.289  502.185  1,6% 502.200 0,0% Q4 113.980  120.332  5,6% 120.347 0,0% EBITDA 134.423  110.388  -17,9% 109.000 1,3% (% Sales) 27,20%  21,98%  -521 bps 21,70% +28 bps Q4 38.897  38.634  -0,7% 37.246 3,7% (% Sales) 34,13%  32,11%  -202 bps 30,95% +116 bps Net Income 97.374  73.962  -24,0% 72.000 2,7% (% Sales) 19,70%  14,73%  -497 bps 14,34% +39 bps Q4 29.466  25.811  -12,4% 23.849 8,2% (% Sales) 25,85%  21,45%  -440 bps 19,82% +163 bps Bank of Piraeus:  Piraeus Bank prepares to float Geniki bank in 6 months- repositioning Geniki to be bad debt specialist according to press articles. Piraeus has hired Deutsche Bank, Barclays on flotation which could raise 200m-300m euros.  Piraeus aims to retain 10%-20% stake in Geniki bank according to the same source. Cyprus/Banking Sector:   Private-sector deposits fell by 2.1 percent to 35.9 billion euros after a 2.4 percent fall in July, European Central Bank data showed on Wednesday.