(Boursier.com) — Hectic week but rebound week for the CAC40. Over five sessions, the Paris star index resumed 1.67% to 6,363 points this Friday evening. Worries linked to the rise in interest rates and its impact on economic activity and on the results of listed companies are far from having disappeared, but operators have taken advantage of the recent decline in the indices to achieve some good deals. The announcement by the Shanghai authorities of the start of an easing of health restrictions in the coming days also allayed fears at the end of the week.
As the quarterly period draws to a close, inflation is the hot topic of the moment in the trading rooms. In this respect, the fight against the vigor of prices is likely to weigh on economic growth and employment, admitted Jerome Powell, the chairman of the American Federal Reserve, who showed himself to be less confident than previously in the capacity of the Fed to avoid a recession by raising its rates to curb soaring inflation… “Bringing inflation back to 2% (the Fed’s medium-term objective: note) will not be painless”, thus declared Jerome Powell in an interview with Marketplace, the daily economic program of the American public radio ‘NPR’. But “the most painful thing would be to fail to counter it and for inflation to remain entrenched in the economy at high levels”.
The strength of the dollar (the euro is trading below $1.04 on Friday) and the rise in interest rates continued to weigh on gold, which lost more than 3.5% over the week.
VALUES
* Faurecia soars by almost 10% and signs the best performance on the SBF120. In great difficulty since the beginning of the year with a title that has lost almost half of its value, Faurecia offered a nice rebound this week. No particular information explains this surge except probably the purchase of investors eager to make good deals on hard-penalized securities. As for analysts, the market remains clearly positive on the issue since, according to the ‘Bloomberg’ consensus, 18 brokers are ‘buy’, 2 are ‘neutral’ and only 1 is ‘seller’. The average 12-month target is set at 42.61 euros.
STMicro soars by 9%. Investors welcomed the medium-term roadmap unveiled by the chipmaker. The Franco-Italian group is notably aiming for an annual turnover of more than 20 billion dollars by 2027 at the latest, thanks to continued strong demand from the automotive and industrial sectors and from smartphone manufacturers.
* Orpea won 7.9%. The group, which operates accommodation establishments for dependent elderly people, saw its net profit plunge to 65.2 million euros in 2021, against 160 ME a year earlier, and announced that it would not pay a dividend. for the closed financial year. This net result includes 83 ME of provisions for risks and charges relating to risks estimated for the years 2017 to 2021, following the administrative inspections to which the group was subject in France, as well as 48 ME of charges related to write-downs of asset values. But the company also reported the signing of an agreement with banking partners to repay a debt that reached 7.89 billion euros as of December 31, up 1.23 billion euros from the previous year. previous year, due to a “sustained” real estate development and acquisition strategy.
* Casino earns 7.8%. A surge of fever to be linked to information from our colleagues from ‘Echos’ according to which the distributor would have spent the second in the process of selling GreenYellow, its subsidiary dedicated to renewable energies. “Casino would expect around 1.5 billion euros for its nugget which it controls 76% alongside Tikehau and bpifrance”, specifies the daily, i.e. “a valuation of around 15 times the Ebitda projected for 2022” . According to the newspaper’s sources, Engie and TotalEnergies are studying the file, as is EDP, as well as the Ardian, KKR and Blackstone funds, EQT and Partners Group. Heavily indebted, Casino is engaged in a vast program of asset disposals. To finance its debt, the sales of GreenYellow and Cdiscount are regularly mentioned.
* Renault gained 1.9%, driven by its electrical projects. In order to accelerate in this area, the group is studying the creation of an Electric Vehicles and Software entity in France. The scope of the study includes electrical and software activities and technologies across the entire value chain. The entity dedicated to electric vehicles could bring together more than 10,000 employees by 2023. At the same time, Renault Group is also studying the advisability of bringing together its activities and its internal combustion and hybrid engine and transmission technologies based outside France within a specific entity. The ‘Nikkei’ understands that Renault plans to list its electric activities next year, probably in order to raise funds. The diamond group will probably offer its partners Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors to participate in the operation. Traveling to Tokyo, Luca de Meo confirmed to the Japanese daily that discussions on the issue were going to be initiated between the three manufacturers.
* Plastic Omnium (+5.2%) announced an ambition for economic turnover by 2030 of more than 15 billion euros, including 40% from new activities and the commitment to achieve carbon neutrality in scopes 1 and 2 by 2025, and scope 3 in 2050. Organized around 5 activities with the future creation of the new Lighting activity, Plastic Omnium should achieve economic revenue of around 11 billion euros in 2025.
* Alstom advance of 4.2%. Over the past financial year, the firm recorded an adjusted operating profit of 767 million euros, equivalent to an adjusted operating margin of 5%, for a turnover of 15.5 billion euros (+76%). Free cash flow reached -992 ME over the fiscal year, where the consensus was positioned at -1.23 MdE. Adjusted net income stood at -173 ME due to a depreciation of 441 million euros linked to the 20% stake in the Russian group Transmashholding. The group also highlighted its historical order book of 81 billion euros. Although strong growth in Europe fueled Alstom’s profit growth, the group inherited the costs of integrating difficult projects after buying Canadian Bombardier’s rail business last year, which explains the maintenance of its cash flow in the red. Alstom nevertheless raised the amount of synergies resulting from this operation. They should now generate 400 ME euros in 2024-2025, and between 475 and 500 ME per year from 2025-2026
Conversely, * Ubisoft fall of 11.8%. If the title has benefited for several months from a speculative wave, the video game publisher has disappointed in its fourth fiscal quarter and its forecasts are also considered disappointing by the financial community. The Guillemot family company is targeting significant growth in net bookings and non-IFRS operating profit of around €400 million over the 2022-2023 financial year. “We are entering a new multi-year phase of significant growth in our net bookings, supported by the significant increase in our investments over the past few years,” said Yves Guillemot, the boss of Ubisoft. “We expect a significant increase in our operating profit from the 2023-2024 financial year”. Citi (‘buy’) speaks of a “disappointing set of results”, with net bookings in the 4th quarter light compared to forecasts and therefore just at the bottom of the guidance provided by the group. The 2021-2022 operating profit also came out ‘light’, “which in itself would probably be correct”, but comes with a weak outlook.
* Beneteau stumbles 7.3% after its quarterly point. The yachtsman achieved a turnover of 317 million euros over the first three months of the financial year, up 10.6% in published data (+8.9% at constant exchange rates). Beneteau explains that the year 2022 is marked by the quality of orders and the commercial success of its products, but with tensions on supplies which are hampering growth. The group nevertheless reiterated its outlook for turnover and current operating profit communicated on March 17 (2022 turnover expected to grow by 11 to 14% in published data with current operating profit between 110 and 120 ME) .
* Dassault Systems lost 3.5%, Atos fell 4%, and OVH lost 5.4%. High-growth so-called technology stocks continue to suffer from concerns about the potential impact on their business of rising interest rates.
* EssilorLuxottica returns 3.5%, weighed down by the warning issued by the American National Vision (-25.3%). The company, whose revenues declined in Q1, lowered its 2022 guidance as it faces strong headwinds from the health crisis. Moreover, the record picks up more than 10% on Wall Street. “There is a negative cross-read for EssilorLuxottica from National Vision’s announcement, as North America is one of their largest markets and has been the main driver of growth in 2021,” explains ‘ Bloomberg’ Jelena Sokolova, analyst at Morningstar. “We can expect some normalization of demand in this market in the coming years.”