Market Monitor - Βy Manos Chatzidakis

        Market Comment - 10/10/2014

Greek stocks recovered after six days of decline on Thursday, with buying interest focusing on selected blue chips such as National Bank, Piraeus Bank, Viohalco, Piraeus Port and OPAP. The composite index of the market rose 1.70 pct to end at 1,025.05 points, off the day’s highs of 1,033,80 points. Turnover was a strong 107.57 million euros. Buying interest was also fuelled by positive domestic macros which showed improvements across the board (CPI, Unemployment, Car Licences). However the sharp drop in foreign markets should affect negatively the last session of the week.

Confidence vote will take place tonight while today is the due day for submitting binding bids for regional airports tender offer.

¢           In the Spotlight

Greece: Greece will be meeting its targets without fail, Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis said on Thursday in Parliament, during the three-day debate on the vote of confidence to the government that opened on Wednesday.

Greece/Unemployment: The unemployment rate continued to edge lower in July, as the Hellenic Statistical Authority’s (ELSTAT) seasonally adjusted data released yesterday point to a 0.9 percent drop in the number of unemployed and a 1 percent rise in the number of working people. This took the jobless rate to 26.4 percent in July against 26.7 percent in June and 27.6 percent in July 2013. There was a significant reduction in the unemployment rate for young people aged between 15 and 24, which dropped from 58.2 percent in July 2013 to 50.7 percent this year.

Greece/New car licences: New vehicle permits in September showed a 44.3 percent increase from the same month in 2013, with 45 percent concerning corporate cars. That was the 12th straight month of growth, the ELSTAT figures showed. Also in September arrivals at the country’s main airport jumped 9 percent year-on-year to reach 2.1 million, bringing the new target of 22 million visitors (including cruise passengers) ever closer, according to data from the Association of Hellenic Tourism Enterprises (SETE).

Greece/CPI: Retail prices kept dropping in September for the 19th month in a row, at a 0.8 percent annual rate, although on a monthly basis the ELSTAT price index rose 2.1 percent. The property price slide has eased, amounting to 7.3 percent annually in the second quarter, from 8.5 percent in the first, Bank of Greece figures showed. Retail turnover began to recover in July after years of decline, rebounding 1.5 percent in July, while sales volume rose 4.8 percent, ELSTAT said.

Greece/Tourism: SETE announced that International tourist arrivals at the country’s main airports continued increasing in September; Arrivals increased at a 9% rate compared to September 2013. For the nine months of the year, the increase reached 14.3% compared to year-ago period while it is almost certain that the record-target of 19.5mn of airport arrivals by the end of the year (21.5mn including cruise ships) will be exceeded.

Greece/Privatisations: The first phase of privatization project for regional airports concludes today with the submission of binding offers by investors interested in undertaking their operation for about 40 years. The same investors will also undertake the modernization of the terminals, which will involve investments of 200 million euros. Four consortiums are expected to bid for the 14 airports. These bids will likely come from Advent International, from the consortium of Argentina’s Corporation America with the local Mytilineos Group, Germany’s Fraport in association with the local Copelouzos Group, and France’s Vinci in cooperation with Greek group Ellaktor.

Astir Hotel: The BoD of Astir calls for an AGM on November 11 to increase capital by €51.6m. The capital increase is scheduled due to the privatisation scheme which HDRAF will get new shares in exchange of land.

Piraeus Bank/Trastor: Bank of Piraeus announced a mandatory public offer for the acquisition of 36.3mn shares or 66.2% of the share capital of Trastor Real Estate Investments at Eur1.34/share. Piraeus Bank owned 33.8% of Trastor plus 37.08% of the company’s voting rights which were acquired from PASAL Development in the context of a debt to equity transaction. Following the aforementioned transaction, Piraeus owns 70.97% of Trastor’s voting rights which, based on existing legislation, triggers a mandatory public offer.