This morning Sofina announced a rights offering of up to €545.6m, issuing a maximum of 2,446,428 new shares at €223.00 per share. This represents a 12.1% discount to the TERP of €253.61 (based on the 23 September 2025 closing price of €255.80). The subscription ratio is 1 new share for 14 preferential rights. The proceeds aim to enhance Sofina's investment platform, enabling increased capital deployment, larger investment tickets, and flexibility in exit timing. Sofina's reference shareholder (c...
The WSJ reported that ByteDance, parent of TikTok, is nearing a deal to resolve U.S. regulatory concerns. A consortium led by Oracle, Silver Lake, and Andreessen Horowitz are set to control 80% of its U.S. business under a U.S.-China framework. The arrangement also includes an American-dominated board and Oracle handling U.S. user data in Texas, while licensing ByteDance's algorithms. Sofina acquired a minority stake in ByteDance in 2016 through a special purpose vehicle alongside other investor...
In this September update we added 2 stocks to the KBC Securities Dynamic Top Pick List : We added AB InBev after the share price weakened post-2Q results. ABI's 2Q volumes fell 1.9% organically, below expectations, mainly due to a 9% drop in Brazil where a price hike led to temporary market share loss. However, strong revenue per hl growth (+4.9%) drove a 6.5% organic EBITDA increase, with 1H growth at +7.2%, near the top of FY guidance (+4–8%). AB InBev, the world's largest brewer, generates ...
A €6bn private equity deal for Cognita, a UK-based private school operator and one of Sofina's key holdings, is on the brink of collapse. Jacobs Capital, the majority shareholder, aimed to sell a significant stake in Cognita in Apr'25. The stake sale to the primary bidders, Blackstone and CVC, is now unlikely to proceed, according to the Financial Times. The deal's failure stems from a valuation mismatch and the UK's new 20% VAT on private school fees, which has introduced market uncertainty. In...
1M Performance - Absolute Total Return: During Jul'25 (1M period), the KBCS Holdings Universe posted a total return of -0.5% which was mainly driven by the performance of the multi-asset holdings (-0.9%), while the single-asset holdings posted a return of +0.4%. The 3 top performers during the period were Financière de Tubize (+11.7%), KBC Ancora (+9.4%) and Quest For Growth (+5.5%) while the 3 worst performers were Brederode (-6.4%), Heineken Holding (-5.0%) and D'Ieteren Group (-4.7%). YTD Pe...
ASM International: 2Q25 Results; Positive tone, weak orders. CM.com: 1H25 results; disappointing performance, guidance downgrade. Gimv: Gimv fuels Hemink's sustainable expansion. KPN: Solid 2Q25, guidance raised largely on €25m IPR claim benefit. Philips: 2Q25 Preview; improvement needed. Randstad: 2Q25 in line; outlook touch below; FX spoils the party but operational leverage story is unfolding. Sofina: Newsletter #16. Universal Music Group: EU opens in-depth investigation into Downtown ...
Since the last publication of our Dynamic Top Pick List on 5 June 2025, our selection has seen again a nice outperformance versus the reverence indices (AEX, Bel20 and Eurostoxx50) of on average 3.3%. Our July update brings 3 adjustments to the list : Since being added to the list in December 2024, Fagron's share price has surged +/-22%, driven by strong Q1 2025 results and robust growth across all regions. Fagron reaffirmed its FY25 guidance and unveiled its “Compounding for Growth” strategy, ...
In general, a weaker USD has a negative impact on Benelux stocks, particularly for companies with significant exports to the US. In this note we selected a list of companies with high US export exposure and we examine the potential impact on FY25 earninings. On top of the weak dollar, rising trade tensions or the introduction of tariffs further harm Benelux exporters. As the dollar depreciates against the euro, European goods become costlier for American consumers. At the same time, revenues ear...
1M Performance - Absolute: During May'25 (1M period), the KBCS Holdings Universe posted a return of +2.2% which was mainly driven by multi-asset holdings (+2.6%) while single-asset holdings posted a smaller return of +1.2%. The 3 top performers during the period were Gimv (+12.1%), KBC Ancora (+11.1%) and Ackermans & van Haaren (+4.1%) while the 3 worst performers were Solvac (-2.8%), Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (-0.8%) and Heineken Holding (-0.3%). YTD Performance - Relative: On a YTD basis (as o...
In this June update, we've made four adjustments to the KBC Securities Dynamic Top Pick List: 1.Merus (Removed – 27 May) was removed following the release of strong interim Phase 2 data at the ASCO 2025 conference. Its lead asset, petosemtamab, in combination with Keytruda, showed a 63% overall response rate in first-line treatment of head and neck cancer—significantly outperforming Keytruda monotherapy. The resulting share price surge validated our investment thesis. 2. Adyen (Removed) has de...
Below our feedback notes written at the occasion of our annual Benelux Local Champions Conference that took place on 27 May 2025 at our historic building at Grand Place Brussels. This event offered the possibility to have one-on-one meetings and/or small group meetings with the following Benelux companies and their top management & IR: ACKERMANS & VAN HAAREN | AHOLD DELHAIZE | AKZONOBEL | ARCADIS | AZELIS | CORBION | GBL | LOTUS BAKERIES | MELEXIS | PROXIMUS | SOFINA | UMICORE
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