Euronext Brussels: DEME breaks record, National Bank blushes at deep red figures

The dredger and wind farm builder DEME enjoyed a positive analyst report. The National Bank of Belgium was punished for a loss of billions. And at Sequana, investors were wary of comments from the US.

On the last day of an excellent quarter – on Good Friday there is no trading on most stock exchanges – the European stock exchanges made a ‘small effort’. The Euro Stoxx 50

has already gained more than 12 percent since the beginning of 2024 and closed 0.1 percent higher. The strong performance is due to the interest rate cuts that the central banks Federal Reserve and the ECB are promising, but also to mainly good corporate results. In addition, the relentless AI craze continues to push the chip sector higher.

Euronav, which gained 1.7 percent to 15.35 euros, could no longer contribute to the profits of the Bel20 – temporarily the Bel19, now the shipping group

has disappeared. The percentage of Euronav’s freely tradable shares had fallen below 15 percent after the (unintentional) successful takeover bid by the shipowner CMB.

After more than five months of suspension, KBC Securities resumed monitoring Euronav, with a buy recommendation and a price target of 19 euros. The majority of shareholders who responded to CMB’s takeover bid appeared to have serious doubts about the greening and diversification strategy of the Saverys family. But this transformation also offers opportunities, says analyst Kristof Samoy.

The second biggest decliner in the Bel20 was Umicore

, which fell 1.2 percent to just below 20 euros. The materials group is the worst performing stock in the basket, with a loss of almost 19 percent this year. Umicore received sales advice from Goldman Sachs earlier this week and that had an effect.

DEME enjoyed the broad market

of a significantly increased price target at Kepler Cheuvreux: 170 instead of 120 euros. With 21 percent upside potential, the advice logically remains ‘buy’. DEME traded 5.4 percent higher at 148.2 euros.

The analyst points to the favorable valuation. DEME is trading at 11.6 times the expected profit for 2025 and 4.4 times the gross operating profit (EBITDA). That is slightly lower than the average for the energy equipment and services sector, it said, while DEME’s profit growth is clearly superior. ‘That justifies a premium in our view.’

As a leader in installing offshore wind farms, DEME will also benefit greatly from the expected recovery in that sector, he continues. Governments have taken measures after the turbulence in the second half of 2023. In the dredging sector, demand is greater than supply. ‘Competitors will have to remove aging ships from the fleet, which will lead to market share gains for DEME.’

The National Bank of Belgium

As feared, it has had a bad year. The loss last year increased almost six times to 3.4 billion euros due to the sharp increase in interest costs. The National Bank has to pay much more interest on the cash surpluses that Belgian banks park with it. Despite the loss, the bank maintains the dividend at 1.50 euros. The share, which has lost more than two-thirds of its value since September 2022, fell almost 5 percent to 470 euros.

2024 will be one make or breakyear for the people of Ghent. In the second half of the year, CEO Ian Crosbie hopes to get the green light from the American medicines watchdog FDA for the alfapump, a pump for diuretic therapy for liver diseases. The application was submitted at the end of 2023, and on Wednesday Sequana received feedback from Washington – as is usual after 90 days. “We have received extensive feedback from the FDA and we will update the market once we have evaluated it,” Crosbie said. A meeting is planned with the FDA on April 9.

The biopharma analysts at KBC Securities see no problem with this. “Given the short time window, management cannot provide additional details about the FDA commentary,” say Jacob Mekhael and Thomas Vranken, who maintain their buy recommendation and price target of 6 euros. Investors appear more wary, wondering what the FDA comments mean.