And on we go with our random walk through the Belgian Stock market after part 1 in January. This time the random generator selected 20 quite diverse stocks, from which 5 made it onto the preliminary watch ist. One of them is a “sexy stock” in a very special way. Enjoy !!!
21. Immo Moury SCA
Immo Moury is a 15 mn EUR market cap real estate company (REIT) that according to TIKR trades at a P/E of 6 and P/Book to 0,57 and has clearly seen better days:
They seem to own a mix of commercial, industrial and residential real estate. More than 50% of the company are held by two individuals with the same surname. Debt is at 50% of NAV which is quite high. Overall, a “pass”.
22. ACVLHO (Achat La Construction La Vente Et La Location D’Habitations Ouvrieres) Expert Market
According to the Expert Market overview page, this company seems to have traded last in the year 2015. “Pass”.
23. Cumulex
This 0,7 mn Nano cap seems to have had an interesting history as a sugar plantation business in the Democratic Republic of Congo. These days that is little activity. 75% seems to be owned by a company called Value8. These Value8 guys seem to be some kind of concentrated Nano/Micro Cap investors according to TIKR:
Nevertheless, I’ll “Pass”.
24. Nyrstar
Nyrstar is a 11 mn EUR market cap shell company that according to TIKR has a negative EV. They seem to be the result of a previous steel smelter that has been restructrured. The have some activity but also make losses. “Pass”.
25. Van De Velde
Whenever I saw a pitch of this company, the cover of the pitch had a picture like this, so I am forced to show it here as well:
Van de Velde is a 423 mn EUR market cap company that “designs, develops, manufactures, and markets fashionable luxury lingerie and swimwear for women worldwide”.
Although the products clearly look exciting, the stock looks much less exciting:
Despite the dividend, Van de Velde has not a lot to show. Little growth and profits are lower than 6-7 years ago. On the other hand, the stock is very cheap and margins are still quite high. With a 7% dividend yield, one might get paid for waiting. 57% are owned by a HoldCo. “Watch”.
26. Warehouses Estates Belgium
This 116 mn EUR market cap stock is a REIT that owns mostly commercial real estate in Belgium with a focus on commerce but also two sites for whatever reason in Ghana.
The stock looks cheap with a 9% dividend yield, but they employ significant leverage. The share has been trading down since 2016.
Not my area of interest, “pass”.
27. CKV (Expert Market)
This Expert Market company seems to be a bank, but has traded last in 2015. “pass”.
28. QRF
Another, 76 mn EUR market cap real estate company. As it seems to focus on inner city retail properties, the 8% yield might not be sustainable. Again highly leveraged and the stock has been declining since 2015. “Pass”.
29. Melexis
Melexis is a 3,3 bn EUR market cap company that specializes in Semiconductors and Sensors for the Automobile industry. The company has been for some a proxy for the progress of Electrical Vehicles, but they are also very relevant in traditional combustion vehicles. For the profitability of the company, the valuation does not look excessive at 16x 2023 EPS.
They have quite aggressive growth targets and as of 12/2023 they seem to be debt free.
Overall, this looks like a very interesting stock to dig into deeper. “Watch”.
30. Fagron
Fagron is a 1,3 bn EUR market cap pharmaceutical company that in principle delivers certain compounds to pharmacies, doctors or hospitals where then individualized applications are mixed out of these compounds for the patients.
The stock looks not too expensive and they have been growing for ~7% CAGR for some years and more than 10% YTD 2023. Among the shareholders is Active Ownership Capital and Kabouter, a fund that I see sometimes in interesting places.
My understanding s that the business is mostly about distribution, much less about R&D. On the negative side, Goodwill is higher than equity, they do have debt and in the presentation avoid to use GAAP numbers and instead focus on “REBITDA”, whatever that means.
Nevertheless, one stock to “watch”.
31. L’Emulation (Expert Market)
This Expert Market stock has traded last in July 2023. According to the website, this seems to be some kind of Orchestra. I didn’t find any financial information, but at least I found a pretty decent Coldplay Medley from them on Youtube. Enjoy !!! And “pass”.
32. Nextensa
Nextensa is a 450 mn EUR market cap real estate developer and owner which interestingly is majority owned by Ackerman van Haaren (AvH).
As it’s Belgian peers, it has seen better days and is quite cheap, but carries a lot of debt:
Not sure if I would want to own this at the moment, “pass”.
33. Azelis
Azelis is a 4,3 bn market cap company that “engages in the distribution of specialty chemicals and food ingredients in Belgium and internationally”. I had never heard before of this company, that might have to do that it was IPOed by PE shop EQT only in 2021.
So far, it was not a great deal for IPO investors who paid 26 EUR a share.
Although I like distribution businesses, Azelis doesn’t look very attractive from a ROE/Margin perspective. They seem to have done a couple of acquisitions around the word and levered up in the past 2 years. GAAP earnings don’t look so good, but free cash flow looks very strong.
EQT still owns 47% and most likely would want to sell sooner rather than later. The exchanged the CEO in August 2023. I still would like to take a look at them although I am not a big fan of PE IPOs. “Watch”.
34. Cofinimmo
With a market cap of 2,3 bn EUR, Cofinimmo seems to be one of the bigger Belgian REITs. As all the others, it looks cheap, has a lot of debt and has seen better days:
They seem to own properties across Europe, over different sectors. As I have not the knowledge to assess real estate companies, I’ll “pass”.
35. Arma (Expert Market)
This Expert Market stock has no recorded trading date, So I’ll “pass”.
36. Credimo
This Expert Market stock was last traded in 2015. “Pass”.
37. GBL (Group Bruxelle Lambert)
GBL with a market cap of around 10,2 bn EUR is a very well known name for anyone who has looked at listen European Holding companies.
Originally taken over by self-made billionaire Albert Frere and teh Canadian Desmarais Family, the construct was a little bit complicated with a Swiss Holdco named Pargesa in the mix. Albert Frere diesd in 2018, since then his son is running the company. Pargesa was merged with GBL in 2020.
The portfolio of the company consists of ⅔ listed assets, the rest are Private investments:
The best days of the company seem to be behind it, the share price hasn’t done much over the past 20 years or so:
Even on the web site tehy admit that they have been trailing the Eurostoxx 50 for the last 10 years (at least they are transparent):
Valuation is around 0,64x NAV, but I gues the Private investments are maybe optimistically value, such as Canyon, a German bicycle company they bought in 2020. Fun fact: Pargesa was actually part of the V&O portfolio in 2011.
Nevertheless, for the time being, II’ll put them on “watch”.
38. Immo Beau-Lieu NV
Despite the great name, this 0,5 mn EUR market cap real estate company seems to be a Zombie. “Pass”.
39. Metalen Galler (Expert Market)
This Expert Market company has traded last in 2015. “Pass”.
40. Ascenio
This 295 mn EUR market cap company is “specialising in commercial property investments, and more specifically, supermarkets and retail park”.
As all the other real estate companies, it is cheap, has debt and has seen better days. In theory, supermarkets should be doing Ok, but what do I know ? “Pass”.
