Circio Holding (No_rec, TP: NOK) - Recommendation and target price withdrawn

We continue to like Circio’s focus on the circRNA programme and believe it will be able to secure a partnering deal in 2025. However, the funding situation is unclear. It recently announced an intention to raise cNOK50m–60m in Q2. As we have limited input on the terms of the upcoming capital raise and Atlas Capital Markets’ (the counterparty of the convertible bond facility announced in February 2023) degree of participation and conditions, we have withdrawn our target price and recommendation.

Northern Lights

Tokmanni (Hold, TP: EUR11.00) - Neutral ahead of Q3

We are close to consensus Q3 clean EBIT, reflecting lower YOY profitability for Tokmanni Finland and soft demand for the group’s key categories. We continue to see downside risk to its 2024 guidance and struggle to get excited about Tokmanni after a series of quarters with negative LFL traffic KPIs (including DollarStore) and underperformance versus the market. We reiterate our HOLD but have cut our target price to EUR11 (12), after small estimate cuts.

SpareBank 1 Sør-Norge (Buy, TP: NOK160.00) - Strong final pre-merger quarter

With a NOK452m gain from the merger of Fremtind and Eika Forsikring, but a NOK105m writedown in Folkeinvest and NOK64m of merger-related costs, the bank reported a strong Q3 ROE of 17.5% (13.6% adjusted). While loan losses were a somewhat elevated ~22bp, NII increased 2.4% QOQ. From an 18.3% end-Q3 pro forma CET1 ratio, it guided for a ~10bp benefit in Q4 (sale of SamSpar shares), ~40bp in Q1 (Basel IV) and another ~70bp in 2025 (IRB models). With the stock trading at a 2025e P/E of ~9.8x and longer-term synergy potential, we continue to find the valuation attractive. We reiterate our BUY and ...

The weekly navigator

From the past week, we highlight: 1) VNV Global wrote down its unlisted portfolio by 3% QOQ in its Q3 report, as its Gett sale remains under regulatory review; 2) starting in this issue, we include Spiltan Invest in our sector overview (SEK9.2bn NAV with the key asset being Paradox Interactive); and 3) Latour is set to report Q3 results next week.