Regional topics

Retail trade - Real wage growth rebound – a push for retail trade

The real retail trade landscape in the Adria region in 2023 presented a mixed picture. Serbia and Slovenia recorded a decline, North Macedonia recorded stagnation, Croatia saw solid growth and in Bosnia and Herzegovina retail trade experienced expansion. Real wage growth is expected to play a significant role in driving retail trade, but the crucial question lies in the extent of its impact. Notably, consumers are becoming more optimistic, particularly concerning major purchases, which encompass the consumer discretionary segment of retail.

02.02.2024.

Sectoral analyses

Home improvement industry - Profit followed by higher handmade activities

Overall strong macroeconomic environment in the previous years has contributed to the increasing consumption in the segment of items related to home improvement, surprisingly, even faster than at the EU level. Spending on home improvement or do-it-yourself (DIY) items was sparked during and after the COVID-19 lockdown and the emergence of working-from-home practice as people spent more time inhouse.

26.01.2024.

Regional topics

ESG - What drives ESG ratings?

Investing in stock portfolios pilled with companies with at least solid ESG ratings and credible ESG track record is again paying well - in 2023, the MSCI Europe ESG Leaders Index rose (+17.4%) more than its parent benchmark MSCI Europe Index (+16.6%), with the latter also involving companies irrelevant of their respective ESG scores and other ESGrelevant criteria.

19.01.2024.

Sectoral analyses

Soft drinks industry - Unparalleled margin and ROIC profile

Generally rising prices within the region haven’t skipped the beverage segment. Strong consumer demand in the Adria region supported the upside in the prices, allowing the producers to copy their rising costs to their selling prices. In this part of the analysis, we aim to gauge the main drivers of the non- alcoholic beverages price puzzle.

12.01.2024.

Sectoral analyses

Chemicals industry - Decoupling swift sales growth and depleting profitability

The chemicals sector is driven virtually entirely by end user industries. Chemicals are a key input in a wide array of industries including agriculture, construction, automotive, electronics, healthcare etc. Therefore, our analyses focuses heavily on chemicals end use in order to gauge industry trends and benchmark performance.

05.01.2024.

Sectoral analyses

Agriculture industry report: Fertile finances – harvesting higher sales growth and profitability

Despite complex post-covid macroeconomic environment, agricultural companies managed to retain stable course that is evidenced in growing sales figures, improving profitability and growing margins. However, with full storages and decreasing trend of sales prices of crops, we do not expect the continuance of profitability growth going ahead.

18.12.2023.

Macro outlook

Adria Region Macro Quarterly 1Q 2024 - Economy on a steady course

Our latest report summarizes the effects of higher personal consumption and recovering foreign component of the gross domestic productin the Adria region countries we see in 2024. Unlike many parts of Europe, it seems that the region has successfully avoided recession, as domestic conditions proved to be much more resilient.

08.12.2023.

Regional topics

Interest rates and Financial Market outlook 2024 - Bonds to shine in 2024

Interest rates push coming from the ECB and FED has entered into a flat territory. This doesn’t mean that the restrictiveness is on hold, as higher levels of interest rates achieved so far provide support for the transmission mechanism to keep rolling.

01.12.2023.

Sectoral analyses

Commercial real estate - retail: Window shopping materializes into lively sales growth

The retail real estate industry has undergone its most significant transformation in history, and the cause can be traced, in its initial steps, to restricted movements during the pandemic and subsequently to changes in consumer behavior, with an essential part of the progress being the rise of e-commerce.

24.11.2023.

Sectoral analyses

Adria region Electrical Equipment Sectoral Analysis - Power surge in sales, power sag in profitability

This report scans the electrical equipment in Adria region from production and distribution market ends. We zoom in on the businesses within the electrical components and equipment sector which facilitate the availability of power distribution and renewable energy generation/transfer.

17.11.2023.

Regional topics

Commodity report - The golden age is not the age for the gold

Commodity market shows mixed picture during 2023. Agriculture and energy are stabilizing compared to rocky 2022, while precious metals benefit from their inflation hedge properties in the light of still elevated inflation, recessionary environment and geopolitical tensions.

09.11.2023.

Sectoral analyses

Energy sector

2022 was extremely challenging for companies from the energy sector. The central factor of instability was an extreme volatility of energy prices. The increase of prices on global market increased companies’ input costs, while inability to pass the increase on customers due to state price caps resulted in a significant drop in profitability for most of companies.

06.11.2023.