Trading statistics for January show an average daily turnover of EUR 1.02m (-36% YoY). Meanwhile, CROBEX ended January in green (+2.69%) at 1,786.24 points.
January marks a continuation of relatively low liquidity on the ZSE, which we have been witnessing throughout most of Q2 – Q4 of 2020. To be specific, total equity turnover amounted to EUR 19.34m (or HRK 146.2m). This translates into an average daily turnover of EUR 1m, representing a decrease of 36%.
If we were to exclude block transactions, Valamar Riviera generated HRK 20.8m or 16.7%, while Adris (pref) generated HRK 15.4m. Podravka comes third, accounting for 9.8% (or HRK 12.3m). Next come HT and Končar with HRK 9.6m and HRK 7.2m respectively. Arena Hospitality Group follows with HRK 6.3m. These five shares generated more than half of the turnover recorded by the entire (equity) market (excluding block transactions).
Share Price Performance of Croatian Blue Chips in January (%)
As visible in the graph, of the observed Croatian blue chips, AD Plastik observed the highest share price increase of as much as 14.4%, ending the month at HRK 183 per share. At the current share price, ADPL is traded at EV/EBITDA 6.6x. On January 26th, AD Plastik’ Supervisory Board confirmed proposal for dividend payment of HRK 8 per share to be paid from 2019 retained earnings. General Assembly will be held on 16 March 2021, ex-date is 22 March, while the dividend would be paid on 26 March. To read more about the dividend click here.
Next come Optima Telekom and Končar with an increase of 12.4% and 8.6%, respectively. On the flip side, Arena Hospitality Group decreased by as much as 6.5%. Such a decrease arguably came on the ambiguity of Croatia’s tourist season coupled with strict lockdowns in Arena’s foreign markets.
As a result of the above-mentioned share price performance of Croatian blue chips, CROBEX ended January in green (+2.7%) at 1,786.24 points. Of the sector indices, CROBEXindustrija noted the highest increase of 9.31%. We note that all sector indices ended the month with an increase, with the exception of CROBEXturist (-0.53%).
The agreement removed the potential obligation of the state budget in the amount of at least HRK 2.5bn.
Croatia’s Finance Minister, Zdravko Marić, reported that an agreement had been reached with six banks that are conducting proceedings before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in Washington, before domestic courts and those that have not yet initiated such proceedings. The banks with which the agreement was reached were ZABA, PBZ, Sberbank, Erste, Raiffeisen and OTP, while the arbitration proceedings were related to the conversion of Swiss Franc loans.
Mr. Marić further added that on the basis of this agreement reached, a suspension occurs immediately in four proceedings, i.e.stopping all proceedings and processes.
The aforementioned agreement removed the potential obligation of the state budget in the amount of at least HRK 2.5bn. So far, Croatia has paid HRK 127m in four cases for the costs of courts, lawyers and experts. With this agreement, all of that stops, that is, there are no more additional actions based on these processes as far as six banks are concerned. For the two banks, the procedures continue, while Mr. Marić stated that the government will continue the dialogue with those banks and endeavour to conclude this type of agreement in the following period.