NEW DEMOCRACY: ND is investing in the battle of ideas, on the occasion of the murder of Vagia Nestora in Thessaloniki.
After the first shock from the tragic news, one after another, government and party officials in a coordinated manner referred to political tolerance and a “protective umbrella” of the left-wing and center-left parties over the anti-authoritarians, while they recalled earlier behaviors of opposition parties that “nurtured” violence.
In this context:
Konstantinos Kyranakis (photo) attacked Alexis Tsipras, noting that “for Tsipras of the left to come and introduce himself with a civil-war name has consequences”.
Kostis Hatzidakis denounced that “certain parties apply double standards on violence”.
Pavlos Marinakis argued that “the attack was carried out by far-leftists and certain political parties apply double standards in these cases”.
Akis Skertsos estimated that “the fascist rhetoric of the opposition arms the hand of the terrorists”.
Adonis Georgiadis noted that “the violence of the far Left must finally be definitively outlawed”.
Alexandra Sdoukou expressed the view that “words and expressions by SYRIZA officials have fueled incidents of verbal violence that can also lead to actual violence”.
But Thanasis Kontogeorgis also asked that “we not forget lines such as, ‘we finish them off or they finish us off,’ ‘government and party - criminal organization,’ ‘pedophiles, rapists, murderers, etc.,’ support for members of November 17”.
Maximos Mansion and Piraeus reject the opposition’s claims that they are instrumentalizing the tragedy, but the truth is that, on this occasion, they are given the opportunity to address the party audience on an ideological-political level and to attempt an improvement in the rallying of the low percentages reflected in the polls.
OPPOSITION: The question, however, “how will we get to the elections” dominates the informal discussions with opposition officials, after the murderous attack in Thessaloniki.
The initial accusations against the ruling party of “instrumentalization” of this act are giving way to questions about the “ideological” identity of the perpetrators and the real target of their attack.
For the time being, only the KKE and Zoe Konstantopoulou spoke of a “provocative act” and a “provocation”, respectively, while even Kyriakos Velopoulos surprised with his position: he accused the government of “exploiting a beastly event” and “creating a civil-war climate”, leading to social division…
The trigger for interpretations about (to put it mildly...) political exploitation was given by ND MP and secretary Kostas Kyranakis, who essentially accused “our main political opponent” Alexis Tsipras as the moral instigator, because he gave his new party the … civil-war name, ELAS, that is, Hellenic Left Alliance.
P.S. As interlocutors from the progressive camp noted caustically, the irony is that the ELAS Mr. Kyranakis means was founded as a liberation army fighting the German occupiers and laid down its arms in 1944 with the Varkiza Agreement….
KYRANAKIS: Given Mr. Tsipras’s immediate condemnation of the attack in Thessaloniki and the uproar caused by the above accusation against him, Mr. Kyranakis tried yesterday to correct the initial statement but… unsuccessfully: after initially describing Tsipras’s statement as “welcome, correct and without asterisks”, he was carried away down the same paths, adding: “however, when you have ten years of actions on your back, one statement is not enough”, he said.
Without explaining what these actions are and what else Mr. Tsipras (and not only him) must do to receive… absolution from Mr. Kyranakis and, through him, from the ruling party.
ELAS: PASOK spoke of an attempt at “division and artificial polarization, of a civil-war character,” PASOK said, SYRIZA of “political degradation,” and ELAS of “abominations,” with ELAS directly attributing to Mr. Kyranakis “division and civil-war rhetoric”.
On the occasion of the above, officials of Tsipras’s party are also sending a message to many recipients, which does not concern only the government’s political exploitation of the attack in Thessaloniki: “You do not deal with today using the terms of the past. What the secretary of ND is doing is the result of the pressure his party is under from the polls and the under-formation ‘Samaras party,’ choosing division and toxicity on the road to the elections”.
The choice of Thessaloniki for the attack in question “may not be random”, officials from across the opposition observe, referring (also) to the city’s “history” regarding such actions.
We’re tangled up?…
MARINAKIS: Impressive, to say the least, are the features of the New Karaiskakis that were revealed yesterday by the strong man of Olympiacos.
It is a 250 million euro project that he himself will finance in order to build the largest football stadium in Greece, with a capacity of more than 53,000.
The New “Georgios Karaiskakis” Stadium upgrades Piraeus and, with the traffic interventions and arrangements, access and departure for fans will be facilitated.
The stadium will have 4 levels and a total height exceeding 52 meters, with a new bioclimatic roof of 30,000 square meters and 5,000 sq.m. for dining, cafés and service kiosks. More than 100 ultra-luxury suites of different sizes and more than 5,000 sq.m. of premium hospitality spaces are planned
The 10,000 sq.m. LED giant screens make the structure the largest multi-faceted projection screen for football and cultural events in Europe.
DOTSOFT: In the end we were right that the price of the large transaction between the sellers/shareholders and the Diorama fund would be officially announced. And this because one of the sellers, Anastasios Manos, is chairman and CEO of the company, so he had to disclose not only the number of shares, but also the value of the transaction.
We did him an injustice, however, because the... proper disclosures were made on June 25. With the only difference that this was not done through a stock exchange announcement, that is, via the usual route, but through the Daily Bulletin of Trading Activity.
Which means (and we admit we had not realized this), that investors, apart from company announcements through the Stock Exchange, must now also monitor the Bulletin daily, in order to learn what executive officers of the companies that interest them are selling and buying.
Because the disclosure will probably not appear elsewhere, not even in the announcements on the company’s site, as happened in the case of Dotsoft.
In short, in some magical way, the “job” of shareholders is becoming increasingly more difficult. For the benefit of… transparency, we assume, some competent officials decided this, probably from the Capital Market Commission, which as a rule regulates such matters.
DOTSOFT II: From the Daily Bulletin of Trading Activity and Mr. Manos’s transaction, however, it now officially emerges that the price of the large transaction -40% of the company- was 19.23 euros per share, when on that day the share was showing 29 euros on the board.
So the transaction took place at about 2/3 of the then stock market value, with a discount of almost 34%.
OK, the stock’s liquidity is extremely limited and the buyer obviously wanted to lock in a large discount from the… get-go, to have it “in reserve” when he becomes interested in selling his stake.
What is puzzling, however, is that in the sessions that followed the stock continued to rise relentlessly.
Yesterday it closed the session at 36.20 euros, with a daily rise of 9.7%, going about 25% higher than the stock market price on the day of the transaction. And about 88% higher than the price at which Diorama bought!
It’s the stock market, you will say, so of course Luigi Pirandello’s “it is so if you think so” also applies. We, however, wonder whether the stock will produce news that justifies the new sharp rise.
Unless, again, those who are pushing it up with 1,000-2,000 pieces simply believe that Diorama has the touch of… Midas.
PROODEFTIKI: The management of Proodeftiki ATE may have announced the cancellation of the Extraordinary General Meeting that had been scheduled for yesterday, with the election of a new board of directors among its items, but this did not prevent quite a few people from gathering outside the company’s offices, on Spyrou Trikoupi.
And we say outside, because at the door they encountered chains and padlocks. People who introduced themselves as shareholders, shareholder representatives, as well as candidate members of the new Board of Directors -whose CVs do not seem to have satisfied the current management- gathered for quite some time and discussed among themselves, leaving barbs about the management’s decision, and not only that.
The developments, of course, were to be immediate, since a little later the convening of a new Extraordinary General Meeting on September 15 became known. A G.M. that is expected to be particularly... interesting.
P.S. The column also sought out the chairman of the Board of Directors, Giorgos Kontolatis, in order for him to comment on the developments, but without success, up to the moment we were writing these lines.
PROFILE: The column “warned” yesterday morning of the possibility of a “surprise” from the listed company to its shareholders. A few hours later Profile announced an extraordinary General Meeting on July 23 on the subject of a capital return of 0.24 euros per share (almost six million euros in total).
The reaction for the stock was immediate. A new all-time high at 8.65 euros (+7.05%) with transactions exceeding 2.5 million euros.
After this move the stock is showing a return of 22% over a three-month period. For international standards, however, in the sector in which it operates and based on the results and estimates for the coming years, its valuation remains low!
COCA COLA: The largest company by market capitalization on the Stock Exchange has recorded eight upward sessions in the last nine. In this period it achieved its own… 13-pointer in performance, with the result that its market capitalization now exceeds the threshold of 22 billion euros.
“Fuel” for the upward move that brought the historic record is the acquisition of Coca Cola Beverages Africa, which changes the data for the group.
MOTOR OIL: The share of the Vardinogiannis group also recorded a new all-time high yesterday. It also surpassed the 41 euro threshold (closing at 41.08 or 2.8% higher), with the stock posting turnover of 12.1 million euros.
Over a six-month period the return now exceeds 30%.
Eurobank Equities considers the stock a “top pick” in the sector, setting the bar at 53.2 euros. It forecasts EBITDA of about 1.3 billion euros in 2026 and about 1.1 billion euros for the next two years.
On the same line is Pantelakis Securities, which set a target price of 51.2 euros.
Significant upside in both cases.
EYDAP: The +4.05% brought the stock to a high of 218 months, lifting the share to 11.3 euros. It has offered shareholders a return of no less than 44%, among them GEK Terna, which acquired almost 13% of the company at the end of March.
The company is running significant investments, while with the new regulatory framework it has visibility for its future revenues.