Mib closes higher, push banks

(Alliance News) - Piazza Affari closed Monday's session up moderately, in line with positive performances seen on other European stock exchanges, at the start of the week that will see its highlight with Thursday's European Central Bank decision.

Consumer confidence in the Eurozone remained virtually unchanged in October, according to the European Commission's latest flash estimate released Monday afternoon.

Consumer confidence in the Eurozone stood at a negative 17.9 in October, slightly worse than September's negative 17.8. Markets had expected a decline to 18.3, according to the FXStreet consensus.

The FTSE Mib closed Monday up 0.7 percent to 27,558.78, the Mid-Cap rose 0.1 percent to 38,208.34, the Small-Cap lost 0.9 percent to 24,311.44, and Italy Growth gave up 0.4 percent to 7,755.45.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 closed down 0.4 percent, Paris' CAC 40 gained 0.5 percent and Frankfurt's DAX 40 finished around parity.

On the main list of Piazza Affari, UniCredit -- up 2.6 percent -- and Alpha Services and Holdings announced Monday that they had signed a binding term-sheet for the creation of a strategic partnership in Romania and Greece.

In Romania, the parties agreed on key economic terms to proceed with the merger of UniCredit Romania with Alpha Bank Romania, which will create the third largest bank by total assets in the local market, with an overall market share of 12 percent by total assets.

In Greece, meanwhile, the companies agreed on the creation of a contractual framework for the implementation of a business partnership to distribute UniCredit's asset management and unit-linked products to Alpha Bank's 3.5 million customers and the creation of a joint venture in insurance and pension investment products with UniCredit becoming a 51 percent shareholder in AlphaLife.

The podium, along with UniCredit, is for Stellantis and BPER Bank, which rise 2.1 percent and 4.2 percent, respectively.

Eni -- up 0.3 percent -- announced Monday that it has signed a long-term contract with QatarEnergy LNG NFE, the joint venture between Eni and QatarEnergy to develop the North Field East project in Qatar, for the supply of up to 1.5 billion cubic meters per year of LNG.

The available volumes will be delivered to the "FSRU Italia" regasification terminal currently located in Piombino, with deliveries scheduled to start in 2026 for a 27-year duration.

Telecom Italia remains in the bearish area and gives up 2.6 percent. The company announced Sunday that the board of directors will meet on Nov. 3 "to examine the binding offer on NetCo and the offer, of a non-binding nature, regarding Sparkle, received from KKR last Oct. 16, as well as to examine the question of which corporate body is competent to decide on the matter."

An informal board meeting will be held on November 4 to continue questioning management and consultants, the company points out, and the board "will meet again formally on November 5 to deliberate."

On the cadet segment, Maire Tecnimont--up 2.2 percent--reported Monday that it has been awarded new contracts worth a total of about USD60 million in its Sustainable Technology Solutions business unit.

Specifically, the company specified in a note, STS was awarded licensing and equipment supply contracts for an "Ultra Low Energy" urea plant in China for client Shandong Lianmeng Chemical Company.

Banca Ifis - in the red by 1.6 percent - announced last week that the board appointed Antonella Malinconico as the new preisdnete of the Audit and Risk Committee.

Beatrice Colleoni, on the other hand, will lead the Remuneration committee while Roberta Gobbi will replace the resigning Monica Regazzi as a member of the Appointments committee, of which she will also be chair.

The board of directors of Alerion Clean Power -- in a tie at the end of the meeting -- approved the signing of two preliminary contracts for the purchase of 100 percent of the share capital of two companies that own two licensed wind power projects. The seller is Fri-el, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fri-el Green Power. The planned investment the construction of the wind power plants will amount to about EUR100 million and both plants are expected to start operation by the first half of 2025.

Alerion's board also resolved to purchase 100 percent of the share capital of Fri-el Solar Srl, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fri-el Spa, which holds a portfolio of photovoltaic development projects in Italy.

Brunello Cucinelli rises 1.3 percent, benefiting again from the bullish wake caused by good results. The company reported last week that revenues for the first nine months rose 28 percent year-on-year to EUR818.4 million from EUR642.0 million in the same period last year. In Italy, revenues increased to EUR97.2 million from EUR78.0 million, in Europe -- excluding Italy -- they rose to EUR217.9 million from EUR184.2 million, in the Americas they improved to EUR284.7 million from EUR233.9 million, and in Asia they increased to EUR218.6 million from EUR146.0 million.

Salvatore Ferragamo closed down, 0.4 percent to EUR11.65 per share. The luxury company reported that its revenues fell 8.3 percent year-on-year in the nine months, to EUR844 million, due in part to a decline in both the Retail and Wholesale channels, with sales down 10 percent and 17 percent, respectively.

On a geographic basis, in Asia-Pacific, sales fell 16 percent, EMEA saw a 3.1 percent increase in sales, North America saw sales fall 20 percent, and Central and South America saw a 3.1 percent drop in sales.

On the Small-Cap, Bastogi rose 3.1 percent, with just over 10,500 shares changing hands, a significantly lower trading volume than the average for the list to which it belongs.

Esprinet - in the red by 0.5 percent - announced that it will distribute Garanteasy in Italy, a cloud service built around consumer needs that makes it easy to manage any type of warranty on consumer goods by connecting all the players in the warranty ecosystem: stores, e-commerce, manufacturers, insurance companies, service centers and payment systems.

Among SMEs, Growens - up 1.2 percent - announced Monday that it had finalized the transaction to sell 100 percent of the share capital of its Dutch subsidiary Datatrics to Squeezely, a Spotler Group company, a leading marketing automation player in the Netherlands and UK.

The final price paid by the buyer for the purchase and sale of Datatrics' assets was EUR1.6 million.

ALA closed at a breakeven after announcing Monday the purchase of an additional 40 percent of ALA Germany GmbH, a Hamburg-based company, thus coming to hold 100 percent of its share capital. The 40 percent was taken over for a price of EUR450,000, paid to the seller from the IPO proceeds. The total investment for the 100% stake in ALA Germany is EUR750,000.

Emma Villas -- up 21 percent -- reported Monday that it had achieved a record summer season. As of Oct. 17, according to management data collected by the Emma Villas Observatory, there were 5,930 bookings in Italy, surpassing by 4.2 percent the total bookings recorded in all of 2022, "a figure destined to improve further in view of the December holidays, where end-of-year bookings are traditionally concentrated," the company's note said.

Clabo gives up 1.6 percent after reporting Friday that net sales for the first nine months of the year rose 22 percent year-on-year to EUR47.8 million from EUR39.3 million in the same period a year earlier.

Revenues rose 8.6 percent to EUR48.7 million from EUR44.9 million, and Ebitda showed a 40 percent increase to EUR6.9 million from EUR4.9 million, with margin of 14.1 percent from 10.9 percent a year earlier.

In New York, the Dow is down 0.1% to 33,095.97, the Nasdaq is up 0.1% to 12,991.15 and the S&P 500 is just below par at 4,223.52.

Among currencies, the euro changes hands at USD1.0621 against USD1.0591 recorded at Friday's European stock close while the pound is worth USD1.2207 from USD1.2148 last night.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD91.57 per barrel from USD93.20 per barrel at Friday's close. Gold, on the other hand, trades at USD1,976.37 an ounce from USD1,985.81 an ounce Friday night.

Tuesday's macroeconomic calendar features preliminary PMIs from Japan, France, Germany, the Eurozone, the UK and the US later in the day, joined by UK unemployment data at 0800 CEST, GfK data on German consumer sentiment at the same time, and data on US crude oil stocks at 2230 CEST.

Among the companies in Piazza Affari, Cofle, Italgas, Next Re and Talea Group will release accounts tomorrow.

By Giuseppe Fabio Ciccomascolo, Alliance News senior reporter

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