value and opportunity

And on we go, turning rocks and kissing frogs in the Belgian stock market. This batch of 20 randomly selected stocks yielded 4 watch list candidates, among them a stock I owned in the past.

So far, the “Expert Market” is a littlebit disappointing. For many of the companies there it is really hard to get infromation. But be assured, i won’t give up easily !! Let’s go:

61. Orange Belgium

As the name says, this 745 mn EUR market cap stock is the listed Belgium subsidiary of Orange Group, which owns 77% of the shares.

As many telcos, the stock looks cheap but has been basically going down forever and carries a lot of debt.

The company stopped paying dividends in 2022. This is clearly a stock for investors who can suffer. “Pass”.

62. Equity Banque Commerciale de Congo (Expert Market)

This interesting Expert Market stock is indeed a Bank in the Republic of Congo, which used to be a Belgian Colonial territory many years ago. it actually trades now and then, last time in May 2023.

TIKR says it has a market cap of 30 mn EUR and trades at a P/E of 2.

They actually do have an IR site in french language with reports. However, the bank seems to have been merged with another entity in the meantime and the reports don’t give any information of what one share represents and if there are dividends.

If I would have more time, this would be something funny to dig in, but so I’ll “pass”.

63. Whitestone Group 

Whitestone Group is a 28 mn EUR market cap investment company. “It also invests in small and medium-sized enterprises. The company was formerly known as EVADIX SA and changed its name to Whitestone Group SA in September 2021. “

The stock is flatlining since 4 years or so. According to a corporate document, there seems to have been a strategic transaction where a new investor called Multifin made an “in kind” equity increase and became the largest shareholder:

Not sure if this is really interesting, but I’ll put them on “watch”.

64. D’ieteren Group

I have to admit that I have been looking forward to dig into this Belgian, family owned Holdco with a market cap auf 10,5 bn EUR.

What we can see is that D’ieteren is clearly one of the more successful Holdcos:

Especially in the last 4 years, the stock was quite on a run up.

D’ieteren runs a couple of business, among others they are the owners of Moleskin, a car distributor/Seller in Belgium, PHE, a car spare parts distributor, TVH, another parts distributor and finally Belron, the largest business which is a chain of automobile repair shops specializing on windshields.

Especially Belron is a huge success in which they own 50% and they have grown the company significantly over the past 20 years. An interesting detail is that they hired Carlos Brito as CEO who used to run AmBev.

After the big share price increase, the stock is clearly not cheap anymore, but they seem to own some really good businesses, “watch”.

65. GIMV

GIMV is a 1,24 bn EUR market cap investment company that invests either directly into private companies or via funds.

Looking at the long tarm chart, value creation is quite limited, however they seem to pay a large dividend:

They seem to have 5 different investment platforms/themes. However their reporting is quite confusing and the portfolio seems to be a little bit “overdiworsified”. The Flemish Governement seems to own 28%. “Pass”.

66. Inclusio SA

Inclusio is a 100 mn EUR market cap real estate company that focuses on affordable and social housing. As many of its real estate peers it has sen better days. It trades at ~0.5x book value but there is debt and the Government of Belgium owns 27%. “Pass”

67. BNP Paribas Fortis (Expert Markets)

This Expert MArket stock actually has traded in 2024. I assume this is somehow the remainder of the part of Fortis who has been taken over after the GFC by Fortis. i didn’t find useful infos on this stock, “pass”.

68. Optimco (Expert MArket)

This stock has last traded in 2023. Ot seems to be an insurance, but I didn’t find any financial information. “Pass”.

69. Miko

Miko is a 59 mn ERU market cap company that reader of my blog might know. I used to own the stock but thankfully sold in 2020 as I was concerned about the Coffee distribution business which had large exposure to offices. Looking back, this was a good decision as the stock went down significantly since then:

Miko, a majority family owned company, used to run two segment, plastic packaging and coffee distribution, but they sold the plastic packaging in 2021 to a German competitor.

In 2023, they were barely profitable and loaded up quite some debt. The stopped to publish English reports. I think I will still “watch” but they are clearly going through very difficult times. However, if they get back anywhere near historical profitability numbers, the upside would be significant.

70. Cumulex (Expert Market)

This is a stock that traded last in 2018. I actually found investor information, but the company has no sales and seems to be more or less an empty shell. “Pass”.

71. Campine SA

Campine is a 100 mn EUR market cap company that is active in special chemicals as well as metal recycling (Batteries). 

The stock chart shows a very good development since Covid, with the stock up around 3x:

The company is owned 72% by the Hempel family. According to the half year report, Campine already made ~6,3 EUR EPS per share in the first 6 Months. The specialty chemical segment produces flame retardant material which is somehow similar to my previous holding Nabaltec. I am not sure how cyclical their business is, but this looks very interesting overall. They have quite decent English reporting for such a small company. “Watch”.

72. EMD Music (Expert Market)

This Expert Market stock seems to be a designer and distributor of musical instruments. The stock traded last in 2018. The company actually has an investors site, but stopped publishing reports in 2012. “Pass”.

73. Basilix Cert

This 2 mn EU market cap company according to TIKR owns a shopping center and is a subsidiary of KBC Group. “Pass”.

74. ALME Invest (Expert Market)

This Expert Market stock traded last in 2021. I didn’t find any information on the company. “Pass”.

75. Compagnie Fonciere et Immobiliere Belgo Tunisienne NV (Expert Market)

This Expert Market stock has actually traded a few days ago, the previous trade was in 2015. According to the name, it seems to be a real estate company that has a link to Tunisia. I couldn’t find a website. “Pass”.

76. Kabelwerk Eupen (Expert Market)

Kabelwerk Eupen is a stock that actually trades sometimes on the Expert market. As the name says, they produce Cables but also pipes made out of plastics.

The company itself doesn’t share any financial information, which is unfortunately as the business itself could be interesting.. “Pass”.

77. Eupen Finanz (Expert MArket)

Really by coincidence, the random number generator picked another company from Eupen next. This one traded last in 2015 and I was not able to locate a company website. “Pass”.

78. Atenor

Atenor is a 272 mn EUR market cap real estate development company that clearly has seen better times:

They seemed to have made a big loss in 2023, cancelled the dividend and did a deeply discounted rights issue at the end of the year. “Pass”.

79. Celyad Oncology SA

Celyad is a loss making biopharamaceutical penny stock with a market cap of 15 mn EUR. “Pass”.

80. Montea

Montea is a 1,6 bn EUR market cap real estate company that specializes in logistics parks. The stock riced clearly also suffered, but doesn’t look distressed like other real estate players:

But even logistics doesn’t really make me interested, so I also “pass” here.