SLOVENIA
LKPG: We are all waiting for Luka Koper’s 2017FY report!
Currently we are in anticipation of Luka Koper's annual report for the 2017 financial year, which, according to their own financial calendar, will be announced by the company on next Thursday. In the beginning of January, Luka Koper reported uncompleted and unaudited data on the 6% growth of shipping throughput and 8% revenue growth for 2017!
KRKG: Krka takes on China sales!
Krka this week reported in its revised annual report for 2017 that they have a new company in China with local partner. The new company Ningbo Krka Menovo, is meant to be a catalyst to increase sales in their local large market, which can contribute to Krka's sales results in the coming years!
Undervaluation of market prices on Slovenian market persists
On average, the market prices of Slovenian companies are not overestimated in terms of book values and revenue levels and profitability, but at the same time these companies pay a large part of their profits through dividends, which obviously deals well with the shareholders of these companies.
Good YTD performance of Slovenian market
The Slovenian stock market has a positive return this year, it gained 3.76 percent, and thus expressed a certain degree of immunity to the consequences of the recent trade tensions in the world. By comparison, the US S & P500 index lost 1.7 percent during this period, while the German market lost even more, as the German DAX value fell by 2.53 percent this year (all measured in euros). The reason for a good return Slovenian market lies mainly in the fact that the relatively undervalued Slovenian companies published encouraging levels of profitability in the annual reports for the financial year 2017 (Krka, SavaRe, Zavarovalnica Triglav, Petrol, Cinkarna Celje ...). Many of these companies will make the bulk of their profits payable to their shareholders through high dividends, while the trend in profitability of domestic companies will most likely continue in the coming years, at least in line with expected economic growth rates. The International Monetary Fund announced a 4.0 percent and a 3.2 percent increase in the economy for the years 2018 and 2019.
INTERNATIONAL MARKETS
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Lower volatility levels and very good earnings season
We are at a time when companies publish their quarterly reports for this year's first quarter. In the United States, the release of quarterly reports began at the end of last week with the announcements of the largest US banks JPMorgan, Citigroup and Wells Fargo and continued this week with the Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs announcements. The profits of all the banks mentioned above exceeded analysts' expectations. This, with the good results of non-financial firms, is giving the wind in the sails to markets this week. After a high volatility quarter, due to rising interest rates in the US, and mainly due to past political events, markets will be happy to accept data confirming the good foundations of companies! Of course, the large investment banks have made good use of the volatility of the markets in the first quarter of this year. Thus, Goldman Sachs's investment income increased by 38 percent to $ 2.31 billion. With higher commissions and high market volatility, which resulted in increased customer activity compared to the last quarter of 2017, the Bank's revenue from trading increased significantly.
Despite the large influx of company reports this week, the volatility of markets declined for the first quarter of this year, which further stimulates optimism. In the foreground there is again the awareness that global growth exceeds the effects of trade tensions. Thus, the price of gold and the euro exchange rate practically did not change during this week, while oil increased by a good one and a half percent (73.73 per barrel). Also, energy companies gained some this week came after the industrial report made it clear that oil reserves had fallen.
SERBIA
Serbia’s Delegation at Spring Meetings of IMF and World Bank Group
A delegation of the Republic of Serbia will attend the Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group in Washington. The delegation is led by Jorgovanka Tabaković, NBS Governor and Serbia’s Governor to the IMF, and comprises representatives of the NBS and the Ministry of Finance. The delegation will talk to IMF representatives about the forms of future cooperation between the Republic of Serbia and the IMF, i.e. potential conclusion of a new arrangement this year.
Source: NBS
Public debt to be less than 52% of the GDP by the end of 2018
Serbia has made the biggest progress in the field of economy, as stated in the report by the European Commission, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said and pointed out that the public debt would be less than 52% of the GDP before the end of the year. According to him, the biggest progress has been achieved in economy. Serbia is still realizing a budget surplus, for the third year in a row, he says. He points out that Serbia no longer needs big credits and that the country will repay another USD 700 million in loan debts in 2018, before the deadline.
Source: Ekapija
AIK Bank given end-April deadline for acquisition of Gorenjska
The shareholders of the Slovenian financial holding Sava gave the Belgrade-based AIK Bank additional time, until the end of April, to obtain authorization by the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) for the acquisition of this Slovenian bank, Reuters reports. Sava, the biggest shareholder in Gorenjska Banka, reached the decision to sell a 37.7% stake of Gorenjska to AIK back in December 2017, but the NBS revoked the permission due to “irregularities in operations” of AIK.
Source: Ekapija
