(Boursier.com) — It’s Christmas before time on the Paris stock market. Thanks to a new weekly gain of 0.76% (to 6,645 pts this evening), the CAC40 has a seventh consecutive week of increase! The fall in oil, the Fed’s emphasis on the risk of an upward revision of the terminal rate, the sharp rise in Covid cases in China after the easing of restrictions put in place by the local government, the Elevated macroeconomic uncertainty with major recession risk in Europe and lingering geopolitical tensions around Ukraine were no match for Fed ‘Pivot’ expectations after inflation slowed last month in the USA.
Yet the labor market and household spending show few signs of weakening despite the extraordinary rise in interest rates over the past year. “The Fed is clearly concerned that ‘pivot dovish’ speculation could undermine its tightening efforts, which may explain why it remains so firm in its hawkish message,” Craig Erlam at OANDA said.
The news of the financial week was also dominated by the descent into hell of the FTX platform and the shock wave that followed on the compartment. Bitcoin is trading below $16,700 tonight. On the currency market, the greenback is trying to stabilize after last week’s fall: the dollar index remains well anchored below 107 pts. The euro is still trading above $1.03 between banks. Finally, on commodities, a barrel of Brent is trading around $87, down nearly 10% over the week!
On the business side, Teleperformance, Orpea or Somfy have spoken.
VALUES
* Somfy logically soars by 21.75% to 144.4 euros after the formalization of the OPAS launched by the Despature family. Majority shareholder of the Savoyard group, the family has decided to launch an offer on the balance of the capital that it does not yet hold up to 143 euros per title. And this in order to extract the value of the rating. If the offer represents a premium of 20.6% compared to the closing price preceding the announcement, some observers consider it a bit ‘poor’. The market seems to be of the same opinion since the title is moving above the level offered, but still well below the 180 euros at the start of the year.
* Teleperformance rebounded 18.2% after making the decision to withdraw from the most offensive segment of its content moderation business (Trust and Safety), at the heart of the “Colombian affair”. “After having consulted over the past few days the opinion of a large majority of its shareholders and the financial community regarding the perception of its content moderation activity (Trust and Safety), Teleperformance announces that it has decided to withdraw from the segment. most offensive of this line of service,” management said.
* Technip Energies climbed 6.5%, boosted by a rating from Exane BNP Paribas which raised its recommendation on the file to ‘outperform’ while raising its target from 13 to 19 euros. The broker says the energy services company’s underperformance is “simply unwarranted.” “Lots of excuses” for ignoring the investment case this year, but many of those issues are now resolved. A series of structural tailwinds underpin a stronger outlook for 2023, the broker adds.
* Plastivaloire (+5.9%) achieved a very solid 4th quarter (July-September 2022) with revenue of 185.4 million euros, up +29.7% (+27.3% at constant exchange rate). After being severely disrupted since mid-2021 by ‘Stop & Go’ due to shortages of electronic components, activity is gradually returning to a more normal level as expected. The performance of the 4th quarter brings the annual turnover 2021-2022 to 704.2 ME, i.e. a growth of +4% (+3.7% at constant exchange rate). Plastivaloire thus exceeded its objective set at around 680 ME and achieved the 2nd highest annual turnover in its history.
* JCDecaux wins 5.1%. The buying flow on the specialist in external communication is to be linked to a note from UBS which has raised its recommendation on the stock to ‘buy’. The Swiss bank speaks of an attractive risk/return ratio while the action is currently pricing in a recession in Europe and does not value a recovery in China. The target is raised from 16.9 to 20.4 euros.
* Thales takes 4.2%, with Dassault Aviation (+4.4%) and Saffron (+3.6%). French actors in the sector were sought out on a risk of extension of the conflict in Ukraine after a Russian-made missile killed two people on Polish territory, triggering a series of consultations within NATO. At the G20 summit in Bali, however, US President Joe Biden was quick to say the missile was probably not fired from Russia. Moscow for its part denied that its missiles had touched Polish territory, evoking “a deliberate provocation”.
Conversely, * Technicolor Creative Studios collapsed by 84%, sanctioned after his big profit warning. While the visual effects specialist continues to benefit from strong demand for original content from its clients, particularly at MPC and The Mill, this demand comes up against a VFX production capacity which is still impacted by a level of unprecedented employee attrition. Management has identified and implemented many actions, but expected improvements in recruiting, attrition and efficiency are not materializing at the expected pace, preventing Technicolor Creative Studios from delivering on time or to initially anticipated costs. Under these conditions, the group has halved its 2022 EBITDA expectations adjusted after rents, from 120-130 million euros previously to 45-65 ME at budget rates (50-70 ME at actual rates).
* Eutelsat fall of 19.2% after the group had taken a new step in its merger project with OneWeb. Following the opinion given by the employee representative bodies on the project, Eutelsat’s Board of Directors validated the operation. The completion of the transaction remains subject to the usual conditions precedent in this area, in particular the authorizations of the competent regulatory authorities.
* Orpea still stumbles 14.2% after multiple announcements. The dependency care specialist, which has requested an amicable conciliation procedure to renegotiate its debt and announced write-downs, has confirmed that it plans to convert 3.8 billion euros of unsecured debt into shares by through a rights issue to existing shareholders. The group also hopes to bring in 1.9 to 2.1 billion euros in new funding, in the form of new guaranteed debt for a target amount of 600 million euros to cover its financing needs until beginning of summer 2023, and a second capital increase. Laurent Guillot clarified that he has no intention of selling the profitable assets of the group, which is still fighting for its survival. Orpea’s new chief executive told ‘BFM Business’ that selling cash-generating businesses “will not solve the debt problem” for the time being. “We are so indebted that a sale would even make the problem worse,” added the manager. The latter stressed that Orpea was struggling to find buyers for its real estate, which partly explains the restructuring plan announced yesterday.
* Elior plunged 12.8%. The selling pressure on the title of the collective catering group under contract is to be linked to a note from Barclays which downgraded the value to ‘underweight’ while cutting its target from 6 to 2 euros. The bank discusses the risks weighing on the company’s balance sheet and the potential non-compliance with covenants. She also cites “zero visibility” on the company’s ongoing strategic review… UBS, for its part, reduced its target from 3.3 to 3 euros with a ‘neutral’ opinion maintained.
* Air France-KLM gives up 9.4%. The airline carried out an offer of last ranking subordinated bonds with an indefinite duration, convertible into new shares and/or exchangeable into existing shares, for a nominal amount of 305.3 million euros through a placement with qualified investors only, representing approximately 200 million underlying shares. The net proceeds of this placement will be used to repay “super subordinated securities” held by the French State. The operation is necessarily dilutive for the carrier’s current shareholders.
* Atos gives back another 8.7% after entering into exclusive negotiations with Lutech, an Italian IT services and solutions provider, for the sale of its operations in Italy (“Atos Italia”) with 100% cash payment. The digital services company did not reveal the amount of the transaction but specified that with this operation, 2/3 of its asset disposal program of 700 million euros would be secured in less than 5 months …