Excellent fundamentals plus a business plan as “tight” as it is clear, signed off on by one of Greece’s most successful entrepreneurs, Evangelos Marinakis, was obviously the right recipe for Alter Ego Media’s impressive flotation on the Greek stock exchange, which has given the media sector a market presence for the first time in over 20 years.
The Company maintained its positive streak over all five of its first days of trading, ending Friday at 4.6245 euros, 15.6% up on the 4 euros at which it began trading on Monday 27 January 2025. As well as outperforming the market over the week, it also surpassed the high bar set by the very good general index in January, which ended the month up 5.4%.
As M. Hadjidakis of Beta Securities noted in his weekly commentary: “Alter Ego Media’s successful Public Offering was the big winner of the month in terms both of its oversubscription and performance on the board, representing as it does a crucial step toward regaining the confidence of Greek investors”.
The Alter Ego Media IPO: a success story that ushers in a new era for the media sector
The course of trading
On its very first day of trading, Alter Ego Media added around EUR 20 million to its initial capitalization of EUR 227,9 million, while by 31 January its capitalization had soared to EUR 263,5 million, making it crystal clear why the IPO was oversubscribed to the impressive tune of 676.81 million euros.
At nearly twelve times the IPO, this showed that demand was real and steady, as those who did not manage to secure the shares they wanted rushed to the board to buy. They absorbed the short-term supply, even at double-digit levels above the entry price.
The share price movement was to be expected, since the picture painted by both analysts and underwriters revealed the Company’s valuation on the basis of the issue price to be 20% below that for similar companies abroad.
This is why numerous domestic analysts interviewed by OT described the share’s performance over its first days of trading as win-win, since short-term investors were rewarded with performance significantly better than the market average within just a few days, while long-term investors made placements in a stock underpinned by the three trump cards that make Alter Ego Media such a positive prospect.
The first two trump cards
The outlook is particularly positive in a sector that has had to make the largest readjustment since it peaked just before the onset of the financial crisis. And it is no coincidence that the first group in the sector to go public was floated by an entrepreneur with an exemplary track record in every sector he has engaged with.
In the case of Alter Ego Media, he gradually and methodically compiled a diversified portfolio, while the investments he made in cutting-edge technologies and in enriching its services essentially signaled a new beginning for the sector as a whole.
Moreover, the founder and main shareholder of AEM, Vangelis Marinakis, was first in line to demonstrate his confidence in the Company’s share. At the start of trading, he held 53.14% of the Company’s shares directly and a further 21.86% through POMACON LIMITED. However, he has now increased his total share (both direct and indirect) to 75%.
And, of course, EAM’s founder and main shareholder wasn’t the only investor to show confidence in a group that has been profitable since 2022, and whose fundamentals have clearly improved. For the 2024 fiscal year, estimates place revenues at around the EUR 120 million mark and after-tax profit at close to EUR 10 million. For 2025, estimates suggest revenues of EUR 128 million and profits close to EUR 15 million. In addition, the underwriters estimate a dividend in the region of EUR 0.05-0.06.
The third trump card: the investment plan
The new chapter Alter Ego Media has embarked on in the Athens Stock Exchange was clearly no flash in the pan. Rather, it was the first step in the Company’s development strategy for transforming the Group from a traditional media group into a Media Tech Group. That is, its specialization in content creation, distribution and management, using cutting-edge technological solutions.
To achieve this, its management team has identified five strategic axes which it will roll out to gradually achieve the objectives set by the Group’s founder and main shareholder.
Specifically, these are:
- Diversifying revenue sources by adopting new ways of utilizing its operations. These will include developing subscription services, ad-supported streaming services (AVOD) and FAST channels, as well as expanding into new areas including the production and staging of music and artistic events, theater productions and public performances and the provision of electronic and online games as well as e-commerce.
- Achieving economies of scale through the more efficient use of the Group’s resources, increasing its share of the markets in which it operates, developing cross-selling opportunities, and boosting its negotiating power.
- Technological transformation, in terms of using technological solutions to produce high-quality content, developing platforms for broadcasting, streaming and content distribution, interacting with the public via tech tools, analyzing data to identify audience preferences and optimize content delivery, and developing technologies for effective advertising.
- Developing and exploiting content and its use across different media and platforms. In addition, the Company will seek investment opportunities in the field of audiovisual content rights for inclusion in the Group’s portfolio.
- Maintaining a low financial leverage ratio and financing its activities and investments primarily through equity. This strategy seeks to limit the Company’s financial risk and employ its high operating leverage effectively.
