Richard Sengmany

Strategic materials: the new pillars of the global economy

At a meeting held yesterday morning at its Paris offices, Swiss private bank J. Safra Sarasin spoke with journalists and MarketScreener.com about the structural momentum behind strategic materials. In a geopolitically toxic climate, the Swiss manager highlighted the resilience of performance in commodities and industrial metals, driven by the energy transition and the massive needs of the artificial intelligence (AI) market for power infrastructure.

25 September 2026 at 07:24 pm AEST

2026-2027 price outlook: what changes for metals and coal, according to Fitch Ratings

Fitch Ratings has raised several of its short-term price assumptions for metals and mined commodities, reflecting prices seen since the start of the year, as well as supply and demand factors.

25 September 2026 at 12:35 am AEST

Arverne widens its net loss in the first half

Arverne's revenue came in at €7.4m in the first half of 2026, down 19.6% year on year. This change is mainly explained by the completion of the ADP worksite, whose activity level was higher than that of the Safran worksite, offset by the end of services carried out on behalf of Storengy.

24 September 2026 at 02:27 am AEST

Entech Maintains Its Full-Year 2026 Guidance After a Strong First Half

Entech's consolidated revenue for the first half of 2026 totaled €71.8m, versus €27.4m in the first half of 2025, on a comparable basis of two six-month periods. This increase reflects the conversion into revenue, based on percentage of completion, of the record order book built up in 2025.

24 September 2026 at 02:18 am AEST

Hexaom targets 20% revenue growth in 2026

Hexaom posted first-half 2026 revenue up 12.3% to €343.9m, in line with the trend in commercial activity in 2024/2025. On a constant perimeter basis (excluding the January 2026 activity generated by the HDV sub-group, acquired at the end of January 2025), revenue increased by 11.2%.

24 September 2026 at 02:03 am AEST

Credit agricole assurances: Philippe Toulorge appointed chief digital and customer marketing officer

Credit agricole assurances announced the appointment of Philippe Toulorge as chief digital and customer marketing officer. A member of the executive committee since January 2022, he previously served as chief information officer within Credit agricole's insurance subsidiary.

23 September 2026 at 07:45 pm AEST

Shell: AlphaValue/Baader Europe raises target price as gas prices climb

AlphaValue/Baader Europe maintains its "add" rating on Shell, with a target price raised to 4,368 pence from 3,821 pence previously. In support of this, the broker has lifted its estimates for the Anglo-Dutch energy giant due to higher gas prices.

23 September 2026 at 12:15 am AEST

Sterling Weakened Despite BoE Holding Steady

The Bank of England (BoE) meeting on September 18 delivered no surprise on monetary policy. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted 6 to 3 to keep rates unchanged at 3.75%, as widely expected. The MPC flagged upside risks to inflation, reflecting the impact of energy prices. In one scenario, headline inflation could reach around 4% by Q1 2027.

22 September 2026 at 11:56 pm AEST

Yen Under Pressure: Bank of Japan Treads Carefully Against the Dollar

At its September 19 meeting, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) raised its deposit rate by 25bp, in line with expectations. The BoJ's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted 7-2 in favor of the increase. The split vote shows that further rate hikes are not yet a done deal. The MPC's composition will change next year, with Mr. Takata (hawkish) set to step down in Q2 2027.

22 September 2026 at 11:54 pm AEST

Haffner Energy launches SB-HEFA to cut the cost of sustainable fuels by 50%

Haffner Energy is launching SB-HEFA (Solid Biomass to HEFA), an innovative process for producing renewable diesel and SAF. It is based on the group's proprietary thermolysis technology, which converts solid biomass directly into a liquid without going through syngas. With a feedstock available for less than 20% of the cost of the oils used in HEFA/HVO pathways, a very short industrial chain, and improved energy yields, the group is targeting a reduction of about 50% in full production costs (LCOE).

22 September 2026 at 04:41 pm AEST

Paref Gestion launches a professional real estate fund dedicated to healthcare

Paref Gestion is continuing to expand its range of real estate funds and is announcing the launch of Paref Vitae Value Add Fund I. This specialized professional fund is dedicated to investing in the healthcare, care, and human and animal well-being ecosystem, primarily in France, with an opening to high-growth-potential European markets.

22 September 2026 at 01:03 am AEST

VanEck: "August was gold's best month since January"

Gold fared well in August, rising 9.67% over the month, closing at $4,437.38 on August 31, its best monthly performance since January, said Imaru Casanova, portfolio manager for gold and precious metals at VanEck, a global asset manager.

22 September 2026 at 12:47 am AEST

RBC still neutral on ExxonMobil, TP maintained at $180

Last week, RBC Capital Markets hosted ExxonMobil CFO Neil Hansen at a meeting in London. In a research note published on Monday, the Canadian investment bank laid out in detail the US energy major's investment strategy. It is built around controlled, disciplined growth across its businesses (from upstream to downstream refining to chemicals), with a key strength being a steady playbook across economic cycles.

22 September 2026 at 12:39 am AEST

UBS raises its price target on TotalEnergies to €88 and reiterates Buy

UBS is maintaining its buy rating on TotalEnergies, raising its price target to €88 from €86. The Swiss bank expects very shareholder-friendly announcements from the oil company at its next investor day.

21 September 2026 at 07:34 pm AEST

CNP Assurances weighs the option of acquiring Coface (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg reported on Friday that French life insurer CNP Assurances was studying a possible acquisition of Coface, one of France's leading life insurance players, according to people familiar with the matter. Such a deal would allow the French personal insurance group to diversify its business by strengthening its position in commercial credit insurance.

21 September 2026 at 05:47 pm AEST

ECB: a preemptive rate hike amid energy uncertainty

The ECB raised rates for the second time at its September meeting, taking its deposit rate to 2.50%. However, inflation is showing no meaningful signs of accelerating beyond prices directly affected by energy. Indeed, as the following chart shows, the share of CPI sub-components rising by more than 2% remains stable.

21 September 2026 at 05:26 pm AEST

Safran: share buyback for cancellation

This Friday, Safran entered into an agreement with an investment services provider for a tranche of share buybacks for cancellation. Under the terms of this agreement, the aerospace equipment maker will buy back its own shares for a maximum amount of €375m from September 21, 2026, through no later than November 27, 2026.

19 September 2026 at 02:19 am AEST

Financière Moncey posts a slightly lower net profit in the first half

A holding company managing a portfolio of equity interests. Financière Moncey generated no revenue in the first half of 2026, as in the first half of 2025. Over the six-month period, group share net profit came to €4.3m versus €4.5m a year earlier over the same period. It mainly includes the share of net profit from Société industrielle et Financière de l'Artois, accounted for using the equity method.

19 September 2026 at 02:15 am AEST

Malakoff Humanis and unions sign an agreement on the rollout of AI

Malakoff Humanis and the representative labor organizations CFDT, CFE-CGC, CFTC and UNSA have reached an agreement covering the terms for rolling out artificial intelligence systems across the group. The agreement sets a clear framework to anticipate AI-related change, safeguard employees' employability, and strengthen the transparency of social dialogue around these new uses and ways of working.

18 September 2026 at 06:53 pm AEST

Oddo BHF: "Warsh's Fed showed its independence from the White House"

"Since he took over as Fed chair, Kevin Warsh has banned any form of forward guidance, even the most minimal, because in his view it is not the Fed's job to tell (or even suggest to) the market what it should think. Instead, it feels like the market dictated to the Fed yesterday what it needed to do," Bruno Cavalier, chief economist at Oddo BHF, reacted on Thursday.

17 September 2026 at 11:42 pm AEST

EB Development Plans to Delist Eurobio Scientific by Late September

Eurobio Scientific is preparing to exit the stock market. EB Development (a company held directly or indirectly by funds managed by IK Partners and former reference shareholders of Eurobio Scientific, including NextStage and company executives and directors, among them Chief Executive Officer Denis Fortier) has announced its intention to file a public buyout offer (OPR). It will be followed by a mandatory squeeze-out in tandem with the publication of Eurobio Scientific's half-year results scheduled for September 24, 2026.

17 September 2026 at 04:30 pm AEST