Brussels stock exchange: with a foamy head along the cape

The Bel20 rose smoothly above 4,000 points after a strong quarterly report from AB InBev. Umicore became worth a tenth more in four days. Ahold Delhaize climbed thanks to better than expected quarterly figures. Bekaert took a hit due to a poor start to the year.

The prospect of lower interest rates is also good news for our real estate water main indicator Bel20. Bricks are insensitive to wind and weather, but tend to react extra to interest rate changes. Yet it was not the bricks that paved the way past the 4,000 points on Wednesday.

The world’s largest beer brewer saw sales volumes decline again, but the decline of 0.6 percent was smaller than the average analysts expected. Thanks to price increases and cost savings, the brewer was able to boost EBITDA (gross operating profit) more than hoped.

“Our first impression is that AB InBev has room to increase the annual forecast,” says Degroof Petercam analyst Fernand de Boer. ‘In most regions the results were better than expected. And except for North America, management commentary points to stable to growing market share,” the analyst said. ‘From now on, the results would no longer be affected by the Bud Light debacle in the US.’

Jefferies analyst Edward Mundy also sounds positive: ‘North America was less bad than expected. We may see some signs of improvement there.’

Umicore

rebounded up to 7 percent during the trading day, but could not sustain it. The share closed 0.9 percent lower at 22.22 euros. That does not alter the fact that the share has risen by more than 10 percent since Friday. That is also good news for major shareholder GBL

.

Last Thursday, Umicore had fallen 5 percent to below 20 euros. There were rumors about a possible postponement of the construction of the ACC factory in Germany. ACC (Automotive Cells Company) is the joint venture of Stellantis, Mercedes-Benz and TotalEnergies with which Umicore announced a strategic partnership for battery materials in April 2022. Umicore subsequently assured that a potential postponement will not impact the agreed volumes for cathode materials.

He indicates that sales in the US decreased by 0.6 percent at constant exchange rates, but emphasizes that European sales grew by 4.6 percent. The latter was partly due to favorable timing of Easter and a simpler basis for comparison at the Belgian Delhaize after last year’s strikes.

About Delhaize, Muller says that ‘excellent progress’ has been made and important milestones have been achieved. He is referring, among other things, to the transfer of Delhaize stores to franchisees. ’76 stores have already been transferred. We expect all transfers to be completed by the end of the year.”

“The results were good and Ahold confirmed its forecast,” says KBC Securities analyst Michiel Declercq. ‘Because we expect the first quarter to be the weakest of this year, we reiterate our buy recommendation and price target of 32 euros.’

“Based on these results, we expect to increase our annual estimates by about 2 to 3 percent,” says Degroof Petercam analyst Fernand de Boer.

The steel technology group Bekaert

did not have a good start to the year. In the first three months of 2024, turnover fell by 14 percent to 1.025 billion euros. The shrinkage was greater than expected. Analysts expected an average of 1.1 billion in turnover.

For the whole of 2024, CEO Yves Kerstens is counting on ‘modest turnover growth’ with ‘at least stable margins’. Pro memorie: for the 2023 financial year, Bekaert achieved a turnover of 4.3 billion and a profit margin of 9 percent. Analysts expect an average turnover of 4.4 billion euros and a 9.1 percent margin for 2024, roughly in line with Bekaert’s own forecast.

According to KBC Securities analyst Wim Hoste, it is important that Bekaert maintained the forecast. ‘In the coming years, there will be additional support through a rationalization of the portfolio and therefore a greater profit contribution from the most profitable segments: Specialty Products and BBRG (steel cables).’ Hoste also points to the strong balance sheet. ‘Without acquisitions or new share buybacks, we expect Bekaert to be debt-free by the end of next year.’ The share fell by 4.2 percent to 45.50 euros.