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Market Comment
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The
sale by Portugal’s BCP of its 4.64 percent stake in Piraeus Bank dominated
Wednesday’s session, as it amounted to 74 percent of trading volume,
which came to 667.8 million euros. The discount on the Piraeus stock dragged
the benchmark lower until the last half-hour, when buyers took over again to
lead the index higher at the end of trading. Coming to the end of a very strong
month in terms of capital gains (+15.7%) and market turnover (average
€182m) we expect consolidation near yesterday’s close as the market
may continue to absorb pressure from Bank of Piraeus offer while other blue
chips continue their flow driven uptrend.
In the Spotlight
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Greece/Taxes:
Overdue
tax debt to the state grew by 809 million euros in September, to a total of
6.188 billion euros, the Finance Ministry said in a report. Total overdue tax
debt to the state (old debt up to December 31, 2012 and new debt) totalled
59.66 billion euros. In the January-September period, the state collected a
total of 985 million euros from overdue tax debt, while debt worth 91 million
euros was written off. The report said that VAT statements totalled 3,018,332
in the nine-month period from January to September, down from a budget target
of 3,850,018, while tax inspection agencies carried out a total of 204 regular
controls in large enterprises (down from a target of 596), while tax controls
on self-employed and wealthy taxpayers lagged far below targets set for the
year.
Greece/
Consumer Sentiment: Consumer sentiment in Greece improved
slightly in the third quarter of 2013, a survey by Nielsen said on Wednesday.
The country's consumer confidence index rose by one point compared with the
second quarter to 48 points, but remained low compared with the international
average index (94 points). The survey was conducted in the period August
14-September 6 among 30,000 consumers from 60 countries who are making their
purchases through the internet. Lagging behind Greece were Hungary (45 points),
and Italy and Slovenia (47 points each).
Bank of
Piraeus: BCP
on Wednesday successfully completed the sale of its equity stake in Piraeus
Bank, raising 494 million euros from the sale. BCP sold through an accelerated
placement process the total of shares and warrants it owned in Piraeus Bank,
following the participation in a share capital increase plan completed by the
Greek bank in June 2013.
Sarantis
(9M 2013): Sarantis announced a positive set of results for 9M period driven by
foreign markets performance (62% of Group Sales) and better than expected results
in domestic market. After tax and minorities earnings jumped 59.41 pct in the
January-September period to 10.81 million euros, from 6.78 million euros in the
corresponding period last year, while after tax and minorities’ margin
jumped to 6.29 pct from 3.91 pct, respectively.
Earnings per share soared 76
pct to 0.31 euros per share from 0.18 euros last year, while consolidated sales
totaled 171.83 million euros, almost unchanged from 2012 levels. Exports
accounted for 62 pct of total sales, counterbalancing for a 3.8 pct decline in
sales in the domestic market. Bank borrowing fell by 15 million euros. In Q1
Sarantis recorded a net loss of 7.2m from the sale of FFGroup shares.
Total bank
debt was reduced by approximately €15 mil. euros as of 30/09/13 since the
end of 2012, while net cash position increased further by the end of the nine
months of 2013 to €9.90 mil. In terms of the working capital requirements
management, it should be noted that, as expected, the increase observed in the
Group’s working capital during the first half of 2013 started to
gradually drop in the third quarter of 2013 due to the clearing of the seasonal
sales.
As the clearing of the seasonal sales is expected to be by 90% completed
by the end of 2013, the company is expected to further reduce its employed
working capital. At the same time, during 9M 2013 a temporary increase in the
inventory is observed mainly due to the relaunch of STR8 in all the countries
of the Group, as well as new launches of the product line KOLASTYNA in Poland.
Therefore, working capital over sales stands at 31% during 9M 2013 compared to
28% in FY 2012 and 33% in H1 2012.
The
company will host a conference call with analysts today at 17:00. To
participate dial numbers are:
| ¡
GR +30 211 180 2000 ¡ FR +33 (0) 1 7075 0013 ¡ DE +49 (0) 69 2222 4493 ¡ IT +39 02 3600 8102 ¡ UK +44 (0) 800 3769 250 ¡ US +1 866 288 9315 |
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Coca
Cola: Coca-Cola
Co. and Coca-Cola HBC AG invested 22 million euros in a new production line at
a Romanian bottling plant to help transform the Balkan state into an export hub
for 100 million consumers in eastern Europe. In addition to the new line, which
was completed in July, the company has built a new warehouse and a power plant
in 2009, investing 45 million-euros. The plant, Coca-Cola HBC’s largest
in southeast Europe, will sell Coca-Cola products in six European countries.
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