Highlights from the German Corporate Conference
Friday 03 February 2023
Last January UniCredit and Kepler Cheuvreux jointly hosted the German Corporate Conference, a key platform to further strengthen our Advisory & Capital Markets business. The 22nd edition of the event brought together 155 corporate leaders from Germany and Austria, ten expert speakers and 400 institutional investors from around the globe.
UniCredit and Kepler Cheuvreux jointly hosted the German Corporate Conference (GCC) in Frankfurt last January, bringing together 155 corporate leaders from Germany and Austria, ten expert speakers and 400 institutional investors from around the globe. During the three-day event, participants were able to share views and insights in more than 2,500 one-on-one meetings mainly focused on the new financial year and how business models may evolve against the backdrop of the global challenges we are facing.
The key message from the GCC was that corporate and investor sentiment has significantly improved thanks to the substantial improvement in energy supply and the reopening of China.
One of the most pertinent themes at the GCC this year was the U-turn in corporate sentiment. Late last year and throughout the Q3 reporting season, expectations for 2023 were cautious due to the myriad challenges the world is facing: concerns over consumer confidence and spending, second round inflation effects, continued supply-chain challenges, rising interest rates, geopolitical conflicts, and the impact of climate change. While these are likely to impact the Q4 2022 and early 2023 reporting season, corporate sentiment in Germany has clearly improved.
In addition, participants noted the turnaround in China’s response to COVID-19. While infection waves are expected to impact the Q4 2022 reporting season both from a Chinese supply and demand perspective, China’s policy reversion is material relief for Germany’s export-driven economy.
Further disinflation signals were observed from comments on falling transport costs, easing energy but also raw materials costs, the need for broker buys has eased and labor cost inflation in the US appears to have peaked. However, with regard to inflation, it remains a key challenge for non-US labor and second-round pricing effects from suppliers will also provide a headwind for many corporates.
“This year’s conference proved again that it is the leading equity conference for companies, experts, and investors to exchange views on key developments, themes, and ideas that might influence the economy and markets in 2023 and beyond. Giving access to such a platform is clearly a competitive advantage for our corporate clients and the strategic dialogue with them. We at UniCredit are ready to accompany our clients with top-quality solutions” commented Jan Kupfer, Head of Corporates Germany and Member of the Management Board of UniCredit Bank AG.
In cooperation with Kepler Cheuvreux, UniCredit offers one of the leading pan-European equities platforms with peerless investor reach, unmatched distribution capabilities, top-ranked equity research and outstanding deal flow, having successfully completed just under two hundred ECM transactions in Europe since 2020. Our platform has over a thousand stocks under research coverage and access to over 1,200 investors in Europe.
Samuel Kendall, Head of Advisory & Capital Markets at UniCredit commented: “The GCC is the unique platform to showcase our expertise thanks to the strong partnership between UniCredit and Kepler Cheuvreux in Equity Capital Markets. We are proud to be the leading German ECM bank, successfully supporting the largest number of transactions since 2020 – offering bespoke solutions for all market phases. This top position is based on a relationship of trust with our clients and business partners thanks to our profound market knowledge. We are looking forward to continuing this intense and strategic dialogue with our clients.”
In 2023, we anticipate a resurgence of ECM activity as companies use favourable market conditions to improve their balance sheets and pursue external growth opportunities.
At UniCredit, we are looking forward to supporting our clients in their strategic endeavors and providing a significant value-add in 2023 and beyond.
We thank all our clients for their continued trust.