(BFM Bourse) – The research office Oddo has radically changed its opinion on the action, seeing several events which could occur in the short term and which would be likely to support the group on the stock market.
While the markets plunged on Monday, the Icade share resisted. The title of the property fell 1.2% around 4 p.m., less than the SBF 120 which fell 2.8% at the same time, penalized by fears surrounding the bankruptcy of the American bank Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).
The action, which even opened clearly in the green at the start of the session, is supported by an increase in recommendation from Oddo BHF, which raised its advice to “outperformance” against “underperformance” previously while raising its objective of course at 61 euros against 46.5 euros.
The design office explains that it anticipates two new catalysts for the action of the property company which could lead to a revaluation in the short term.
The first concerns the Icade Santé subsidiary, which the company had considered listing on the stock market for a time. During the publication of its annual results, lcade had indicated “to continue its reflection” on the liquidity of this subsidiary.
“The reflections relate to different scenarios aimed at meeting the objectives that the group has set itself, namely organizing the liquidity of the participation, externalizing the fair value of the health real estate, and generating liquidities to strengthen the group’s balance sheet in order to allow Icade to be able to seize growth opportunities”, developed the company at the time.
Oddo BHF explains that “this liquidity event” could take other forms than an IPO, such as a private capital increase or the entry of a shareholder, and could occur “very soon”.
A future strategic plan
“We understand that discussions are currently being held with several institutional investors and several options are currently being studied, including transferring control of Icade Santé to another entity,” writes the design office.
“Such an operation would then be likely to reduce the group’s debt and give it additional resources to seek opportunities in the new financial environment”, continues Oddo, who also believes that Icade could pay an exceptional dividend over two years.
Another catalyst mentioned by Oddo BHF: the strategic vision of the new CEO, Nicolas Joly. Icade announced his appointment at the beginning of the month, which will take effect at the end of the company’s general meeting on 21 April.
“We see this appointment as a desire of the board to make significant changes to the group’s strategy and we imagine that it will ask it to define and implement a strategy which is particularly attractive for shareholders and likely to revitalize the stock market”, underlines Oddo.
“He will most certainly draw on his M&A experience [fusions-acquisitions, NDLR] but also on its ability to innovate and enhance every square meter to accelerate the group’s transformation and development, mainly in offices and new asset classes with promising growth prospects such as data centers”, continues the design office.
Nicolas Joly is project director of mergers and acquisitions at Casino where, underlines Oddo, he notably led the sale of more than 3 billion euros of assets. “His time on the board of directors of Mercialys, before Casino sold its entire stake in 2022, allowed him to acquire experience in customer relations and the financial management of a property company”, also argues the office of ‘studies.
Julien Marion – ©2023 BFM Bourse
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