(BFM Stock Exchange) – The British bank went to “overcome”, equivalent to “buy”, on the title of the energy group this Thursday, June 5, expecting the company to continue to publish solid results. The action took almost 2%.

Engie is one of the best students in the CAC 40 on this first part of 2025. The energy group has won 25.7% since the start of the year, which allows it to point, for the time to seventh row, while remaining fairly close to the podium (Bouygues, third takes 34%). Thales (+97%) and Société Générale (+79.5%) seem, in contrast, out of reach.

The group led by Catherine Macgregor benefited from the revival of market interest for “utilities” (communities services, such as the supply of gas, electricity or water and waste treatment), a sector which has constituted a basin of refuge values ​​for investors in the face of uncertainty caused by customs duties. This because this sector operates on local and regulated markets, often with long -term contracts.

ENGIE also twice the scholarship by first publishing its annual results in March, then its accounts in the first quarter.

The first time, the group had delivered engaging perspectives, enhancing certain medium -term objectives. The second time, the group had exceeded the expectations of analysts thanks in particular to the good performance of its gas and electrical networks infrastructure division.

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An attractive discount

For Barclays, despite this good stock market course, Engie still has it under the pedal. The British bank noted its advice this Thursday to “overlap” on Thursday, equivalent to buying in its nomenclature, against “online weighting”, before. She also enhanced her course goal at 22 euros, against 19 euros previously, a target that gives a potential of 14% during Thursday’s closing.

This change of recommendation gave a little boost to the Engie action, which took 1.9% this Thursday on the Paris Stock Exchange, signing the third highest increase in CAC 40.

Barclays explains that the action is attractive in view of the stock market discount which it suffers from other groups in the “Utilities” sector in Europe. During the current course, Engie is exchanging between 9 and 10 times the benefits expected in the medium term, against an average of 12 to 13 times for the sector, and the expected dividend represents 8% of the course against an average of 5% for other “utilities”.

Admittedly, certain catalysts for action have already passed, such as the increase in the medium -term objectives of society, or the fact that the Bayrou government has passed the vote of a censorship motion in February. Engie is indeed a value relating to political risk.

Belgian nuclear as a catalyst

But the bank perceives other catalysts. Barclays quotes Belgian nuclear. According to an agreement established in 2023, Engie will transfer to the Belgian government all the obligations linked to nuclear waste on all the power plants in the country in exchange for a lump sum payment of 15 billion euros.

This agreement has the advantage of giving a fixed cost and known for the group without exposing it to any new revisions. A kind of balance of any account.

“The agreement eliminates a major risk for action, although it implies the payment of an important premium compared to the accounting value of its nuclear provisions”, said Deutsche Bank in a note published in 2023.

This agreement had been established in connection with the Belgian government’s decision to extend the exploitation of the Doel 4 and Tihange 3 reactors, operated by the Electrabel subsidiary, by ten years. Belgium intended to get out of nuclear in 2025 but the bursting of the war in Ukraine in 2022 had led the country to review its decision.

The “closing” (signing) of this agreement occurred last March. The transfer of financial responsibility to the Belgian state of the management of nuclear waste and fuel will therefore arrive, while the reboot of the reactors is scheduled for next November. This effective transfer will constitute a catalyst, judge Barclays. As well as the implementation of a legal structure dedicated to the two prolonged nuclear reactors, owned on parity by the Belgian state and Engie.

In addition, Barclays was delighted with the latest ENGIE results with an operating profit outside nuclear activities 14% higher than expectations in the first quarter.

The bank expects the next publications to be of the same ilk. Thus the results of the first half, on August 1, and those in the third quarter, on November 6, should also result in an increase in action, according to Barclays.