What Caught Our Eye This Week: EMEA Top Reads

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What Caught Our Eye This Week: EMEA Top Reads

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What Caught Our Eye This Week

EMEA Top Reads

Akzo Nobel: No (G)regrets following merger path, Buy 28 June 2026

Matthew Yates reiterates his Buy on Akzo, increasing his PO to EUR75 (from 60), Equity

offering c.30% upside, and adding the stock to our Europe 1 list of best ideas (see Akzo Europe

note). Matthew recently hosted investor calls with Grégoire Poux-Guillaume (CEO Akzo) Eric Lopez >>

and Carl Anderson (CFO Axalta) who will comprise the management team of the merged Head of EMEA Equity Research

company. He was struck by the conviction in which they discussed realising the synergy MLI+44 (UK)20 7996 4143

prize, and he doesn’t think investors appreciate how profound the shift in governance eric.j.lopez@bofa.com

and culture will be in the merged company. Matthew’s analysis shows that combining a Mark Troman >>

20% profit uplift from synergies, and a 30% re-rating to peers, suggests compelling ResearchMLI (UK) Analyst

return from deal execution. He cites the Linde-Praxair deal as providing a frame of +44 20 7996 4194

mark.troman@bofa.com

reference for cross-Atlantic value creation when the right incentives are in place.

Robyn Dawson >>

Luxury Goods: Progressive recovery, Pandora up to Buy ResearchMLI (UK) Analyst

+44 20 7996 2521

Ashley Wallace publishes an in-depth note on Luxury Goods (see Luxury note) robyn.dawson@bofa.com

emphasising that sales growth continues to progressively recover. She expects demand

acceleration will be most prominent in the US, Korea and Hong Kong, ie in markets

backed by strong wealth creation. For example, booming equity markets have driven US

household wealth up by $6tn YTD (after a $10tn gain in 2025) and Korea has also

experienced stock market driven wealth creation.