Publicly traded companies are stable in declining profits

Quoted companies ended the first half of 2023 with declining profits and sales. However, they have demonstrated resilience and sound debt management, which is likely to result in a net profit of 10 billion euros by the end of the year.

Of the 153 companies that released their half-year results by Sunday evening, 143 (94%) reported a 12.49% drop in net profit after tax of 4.745 billion euros, down from 5.422 billion euros, the corresponding figure for the first half of 2022. Excluding the profitability of the four systemic banks, the net profit of the remaining listed companies amounted to 2.93 billion euros, compared to 3.083 billion euros last year.

Turnover for the six months amounted to 44.104 billion euros compared to 45.772 billion euros in the corresponding period last year, a decline of 3.65%. It also recorded a 7.9% drop in operating profit to €6.34 billion.

The most important factor behind the decline in quoted companies' earnings compared to the first half of 2022 is the lack of extraordinary earnings for refiners (Motor Oil, Helleniq Energy) and most steel companies (Viohalco, ElvalHalcor, Alumyl, Biokarpet, Elastron, SIDMA). Other factors that slowed down the results of quoted companies were increased finance costs, which mainly affected groups with high debt obligations, as well as the impact of inflation, which burdened the administrative costs of many quoted companies.

There were also excellent results from the energy groups, which were endorsed by satisfactory system performance, despite lower demand. At the same time, alternative energy sources (RES) posted a weak half of the year due to a lack of wind data. In addition to banks and energy companies, transportation and car rental companies also performed well due to very high tourist traffic. There were also excellent results from Jumbo, OPAP, Kri-Kri, PPA, Athens Medical, ADMIE, Cenergy, Ideal, Austriancard and Titan.

In the first half of this year, conditions were more challenging in the plastics industry (e.g. Plastics of Thrace, Plastics of Crete, Daios), petroleum products trading (Elinoil and Revoil after last year's very high profits), the wood industry (e.g, Interwood - Timber), and in flour milling (Loulis Mills, Kepenos Mills and Sarandopoulos Mills), marble (e.g.

High capitalization companies such as Mytilineos, Coca-Cola HBC, Jumbo, Cenergy, Titan, OPAP, OTE, Sarantis, as well as Karelias (despite a slight decline in profit) and Fourlis (lower accounting profit due to lower fair value revaluation of assets of subsidiary Trade Estates) also attracted attention. The construction sector played a leading role (GEK-TERNA and Intrakat, which turned the page but were also very important "small" companies such as Domiki Kritis), IT (e.g. Epsilon Net, Entersoft, Quest Holdings, Profile, Real Consulting) and of course tourism and transportation (e.g. Aegean Airlines, Attica Group, Lampsa, Autohellas, Motodynamics).

The real estate sector in Greece has performed much better compared to Europe (problems with interest rates), with prices in our country continuing their upward trend. Those listed on the Athens Stock Exchange improved their operating performance, although their net profit margin was affected by the fair value assessment of their real estate.