by Anestis Dokas

 

 

Twenty-one listed companies on Athens Stock Exchange of mainly large capitalization showed a total net profit of 3.744 billion euros. The companies announced results for the first nine months of 2022, against a profit of 1.47 billion euros for the same period of 2021. The country's largest commercial and industrial enterprises achieved a strong increase in their financial sizes.

 

If to the above profits is added the profitability of the 4 systemic banks, which amounts to 2.305 billion euros in the first nine months of this year, then the total sum of profitability for the 25 listed banks is 6.049 billion euros, a record for the nine months of 2022 compared always to the previous nine months, as well as compared to 1.864 billion in 9M 2021.

 

The listed companies did not provide full information on turnover, EBITDA and net profitability. The operating profitability (EBITDA) for the 21 listed companies that announced is 5.789 billion euros from 3.105 billion euros for the first nine months of 2021.

 

The environment of strong inflationary pressures and high energy cost does not seem to have drastically affected the profitability of listed companies, not even in the third quarter of 2022, where the combination of increased investments and inbound tourism kept performance at satisfactory levels.

 

The Greek economy also showed strong evidence of resilience in the third quarter, where businesses significantly affected by tourism (e.g. Aegean Airlines, Attica Group, Autohellas, Motodynamiki) were boosted.

 

The country's two refineries (ELPE and Motor Oil) broke all records, with net profitability exceeding 1 billion euros each, due to the large increase in oil refining margin. At the same time, the large commercial and industrial companies (OTE, Mytilineos, OPAP, ElvalHalcor, Titan, Karelias) strengthened their dominance in the sectors in which they operate.

 

Mytilineos' Q3 performance beat analysts' initial forecasts. The high efficiency of thermal power plants, the supply of natural gas at low prices, high EBITDA margins of 30% in the aluminum sector and the performance of the RES sector contributed to the "explosion" of profits, while positive economic flows supported investments of 442 million euros.