The Point for Europe Friday,

The Point for Europe Friday, 14 August 2026

Top Call | Company | Industry | Strategy & Economics | Commodities | Fixed Income & FX | Key Rating and Target Price Changes

Top Call Must Read BASF SE (BASFn.DE) - Less risky than Air Liquide? Global Economic Outlook & Strategy - At €50 BASF’s shares trade in the upper-half of their five-year range, making the Renewed Uncertainties—But risk/reward less clear-cut. However, supportive macro data and management’s Q3 Continued Resilience commentary suggest the positive momentum is unlikely to reverse imminently. Looking ahead to 2027, we maintain our view that the bar is lower than widely perceived as, unlike for the sector’s ‘default investment’ Air Liquide, consensus does not appear to factor in any macro acceleration. Valuation leaves room for further re-rating if the recovery continues and potential news on increased EU protectionism emerges in H2. Sebastian Satz, CFA | Ranulf Orr, CFA | Omi Pallavi

Infineon Technologies (IFXGn.DE) - AI Power Visibility Improves; Recovery Broadens Across End Markets Infineon's F3Q26 results reinforce our view that the company is evolving from a cyclical recovery story into a structural beneficiary of AI power infrastructure. While margins missed elevated expectations and F4Q profitability guidance came in slightly below consensus, demand signals continue to strengthen across the business. Backlog increased to nearly €30bn, inventories have largely normalized, bookings continue to improve, and management highlighted rising lead times across several end markets. Most importantly, AI power demand remains above available supply, prompting mgmt. to raise its FY26 AI revenue target to more than €1.6bn and signal a material increase to its FY27 AI revenue outlook in November. Pavan Daswani, CFA

Adyen N.V. (ADYEN.AS) - Growth Durability Reassures, Competition Fears Fade; Buy Adyen's H1 results provided some reassurance on recent investor concerns around growth, competition and margins, and reinforce our fundamental view that Adyen can sustain low-20s growth through H2 and beyond driven by wallet-share gains, new customers and vertical expansion. Meanwhile, the strategic expansion beyond payments into areas such as loyalty, billing, Intelligent Money Movement and Agentic Commerce further strengthens the long-term growth opportunity. We continue to view the valuation of 22x 2027e P/E as discounting an overly pessimistic scenario. Buy. _ Pavan Daswani, CFA _

See Appendix A-1 for Analyst Certification, Important Disclosures and Research Analyst Affiliations.

Company RWE (RWEG.DE) - 2Q26 in line with preannouncement, positive commentary around DC site sales and capacity market impact RWE announced 2Q26 results this morning, which were in line with previous pre- announcement (link) issued on 28th July both in terms of reported 1H26 results and guidance. Today's release contains two extra points that we believe support our positive catalyst watch we opened for RWE in late July (link). Firstly, RWE confirmed that it is close to reaching an agreement for two data centre sites. Secondly, RWE clarified that 2031 guidance does not include contracted earnings from its financial investment in Louisiana LNG terminal or upsides from the introduction of capacity markets in Germany and Netherlands. With regards to the latter RWE has existing flexible capacity above 6.5GW in Germany and above 3.5GW in the Netherlands. RWE also reconfirmed it has above 3GW project portfolio scheduled for new capacity September and December auctions in Germany, which we see as the next catalyst for the stock. Piotr Dzieciolowski | Jenny Ping

Evolution AB (publ) (EVOG.ST) - Candle Lake makes mandatory offer for Evolution at SEK 695/share, -6% to yesterday's close According to Bloomberg (13 Aug, link), Candle Lake Limited - controlled by investor Kenneth Dart - has made a mandatory offer to acquire Evolution for SEK 695/share, or 6% below yesterday's closing price. The offer values Evolution's equity at SEK 131.7bn. This follows on from Candle Lake increasing its stake in Evolution to 30.02% on 24-July (see note) and thereby triggering a mandatory takeover offer (within 4 weeks) under Swedish…