Petrol to invest into three large solar power plants with a total installed capacity of 22 MW, expected electricity generation of 29 GWh in Knin, Croatia with an estimated value of EUR 17m, and the expected start of operations in 2023.

Yesterday, Petrol announced that it would invest in solar power plants in Knin, Croatia. This investment would mean the installation of three large solar power plants with a total installed capacity of 22 MW and an expected electricity generation capacity of 29GWh. These power plants would be the following: Suknovci, with 10 MW of installed capacity, Pliskovo, with 6.3 MW of installed capacity, and Vrbnik, with 5.7 MW of installed capacity. The total investment value is estimated at EUR 17m, and the plants should start operating in 2023.

This is all part of Petrol’s energy transition towards being a low carbon company. This strategy includes the development of new technologies and changing the ways of how energy products are made, sold and used. The Company’s aim is to become a key link in a broader ecosystem by offering energy sources that are adapted to and co-shape the market.

The Company’s commitment to making a transition to green energy is also seen in its strategy for the period of 2021-2025, in which the Company said it will reserve 35% of its total investment potential of EUR 698m for investments in energy transition, the majority of which will be investments in energy generation from renewable sources.

As a reminder, Petrol has been present in the field of renewable electricity generation for some time now, operating 2 wind power plants, 30 small solar power plants, and 6 small hydropower plants. This means that as of the end of 2021, Petrol’s total installed capacity for renewable electricity generation amounted to 68.9 MW.

In January 2022, the Slovenian mutual funds have EUR 4.27bn under management, which is a decrease of -1.6% MoM and an increase of 28.6% YoY.

Slovenian mutual funds have EUR 4.27bn AUM (assets under management) in January 2022. Meaning that on a YoY basis, the AUM of the funds increased by 28.6%, while on a MoM basis, they decreased by -1.6%. This also breaks the positive trend of AUM increases the funds experienced during the last several months, but at the same time, the EUR 4.27bn figure is one of the highest the funds have been at, only surpassed by the last months’ record high of EUR 4.34bn under management.

Equity Holdings of Slovenian UCITS funds (EUR bn)

Looking over to the net contributions of the funds, in January 2022, they amounted to EUR 26.2m, starting the year in green. At the same time, the number of subscribers also reached 496,684, marking the largest amount of subscribers the funds had in their history. When looking at the net contributions over the last twelve months, that is TTM (trailing twelve months), they amounted to EUR 466.5m, which is several times higher than the EUR 179.6m experienced during the same period of 2020.

In terms of the asset structure of the funds, in January 2022, shares amounted to 71.1% (or EUR 3.03bn) of total assets under management, a slight decrease of 0.3 p.p. MoM. Following them we have the bond holdings, which amounted to 15.4% (or EUR 657m), followed by investment funds with 7.1% (or EUR 304m) and money market, deposits and cash with 6% (or EUR 256m). On a YoY basis, shares increased their % of total assets by 2.4 p.p., while simultaneously, bonds decreased by 2.1. p.p. over the same period.

Net contributions in the Slovenian mutual funds (EUR m)

Of that amount, domestic equity holdings amount to EUR 77.3m, an increase of 8.45% MoM and 30.7% YoY. On the other hand, foreign equity holdings amount to EUR 2.95bn, a decrease of 2.2% MoM, but an increase of 33.1% YoY. This does support the fact that during the last year, foreign securities had a strong rally after the COVID-19 pandemic started to wind down and the economies started to recover. At the same time, the 2% decrease MoM also signals that there was a slight selloff of foreign securities, which is in line with the current sentiment on the global market (expectations of higher interest rates, and general uncertainty) which does drive the funds to reduce their exposure to this type of risk.

Total assets of all Slovenian UCITS funds (EUR bn)

In January, BET increased by 0.99%, ending the month at 13,190.07 points.

Bucharest Stock Exchange has published its monthly trading report for January 2022. During the month, the new record was made – on January 25th, 16,100 transactions were made in a single day, which is the highest number of transactions ever recorded. Compared to January 2021, transactions with shares listed on the Regulated Market increased by 158% and exceeded RON 2bn, app. EUR 400m.

The total equity turnover on the Exchange amounted to EUR 408.7m, while the average daily turnover amounted to EUR 20.4m. In January, OMV Petrom had the highest turnover of EUR 221.5m (which amounts to 45.8% of all equity turnover), followed by Banca Transilvania with a turnover of EUR 43.6m, Fondul Proprietatea with a turnover of EUR 26.4m, BRD with EUR 18.7m, and Nuclearelectrica, with a turnover amounting to EUR 14.7m.

Looking over to the BET constituents, we can see that 12 out of 20 companies experienced growth during the month. The largest increase was recorded by Sphera Franchise Group, which increased by 15%, followed by BRD, ALRO and Teraplast, which experienced increases of 11.8%, 11.1% and 9.6%, respectively. No other company from the index reported an increase of over 5%, while only DIGI and Fondul Proprietatea reported an increase of over 2%. This means that out of 20 companies in the index, only 6 had an increase of over 2% during January.

This is in line with the global sentiment that was witnessed during the month. Things like the inflation and expected rate hikes in the US, the Russia-Ukraine tension, as well as the surging commodity (mainly gas) prices were present – all of them negatively influencing the market, as can be seen by the low growth of most of these companies during January.

Meanwhile, the highest decrease in price in January was reported for Transelectrica, Transgaz and OMV Petrom, which declined by 6.7%, 5.5% and 5.4%, respectively. Besides the market uncertainty, all 3 of these companies are in the energy production/distribution sector, and considering the volatility of energy prices, this decline comes as no surprise.

Performance of BET constituents in January (%)