Before the Bell: Exor Has No Intention of Selling Its Football Shares

This week, the European Central Bank is likely to announce that euro interest rates will remain unchanged. Today and in the coming days, a wide range of business confidence indicators will be published worldwide.

The sting came at the tail end of the week. That became clear again on Friday, when investors sold off shares on Wall Street. On the final trading day of the week, the S&P 500 (-1.1%) and the Nasdaq (-1.7%) fell sharply enough to push both indices into negative territory for the week as a whole. Oracle (-4.5%) lost more on Friday than it had gained the day before. On Wednesday, the stock had already taken a hit as investors began questioning the company’s heavy investments and rising debt levels. On a weekly basis, Larry Ellison’s company fell 15.4%. In Europe, markets lost an average of 0.6% on the final day of the week. ASML (-1.7%) and Schneider Electric (-1.6%) declined more sharply, as did bank stocks. The Bel20 (-0.3%) held up relatively well. Within the Brussels index, Umicore (+2.8%) stood out positively, while Lotus Bakeries (-3.3%) gave up the most ground.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei is down 1.3% this morning, while the Topix (+0.1%) is barely lower. In Hong Kong, shares are losing an average of 0.9%. Earlier today, China published figures on industrial production (+4.8%) and retail sales (+1.3%) for November. Both came in slightly below expectations (+5% and +2.8%). In Japan, the Tankan survey shows that business confidence in the fourth quarter is at its highest level in four years. Japanese business leaders remain concerned, however, about U.S. import tariffs and weak consumer spending.

Juventus Is Not for Sale

Is investing in a football club a good idea? Perhaps that question is best put to Marc Coucke or Paul Gheysens, who invested in Anderlecht and Antwerp respectively. Neither has made much money from it—quite the opposite, in fact. There is generally little to be earned from listed football clubs. Six years ago, a share in Ajax still cost 22 euro. Last Friday, it was trading at just 8.9 euro. Juventus fared even worse. Over six years, its share price fell from more than 15 euro to 2.19 euro. On Friday after the close, Tether—the crypto company, yes—launched a bid to acquire the 65.4% stake that Exor holds in Juventus at 2.66 euro per share. That represents a 21.5% premium to Friday’s closing price. Exor, however, made it clear on Saturday that it has no interest in selling.

Year-End Top Picks

Newspaper De Tijd published its annual top-10 list of analyst tips for 2026 on Saturday. We already shared the Belgian and international lists in the Spamalot (link to Spamalot).

Top picks for Belgium:

1. Sofina
2. Aedifica
3. D’Ieteren
4. Lotus Bakeries
5. Ageas
6. Argenx
7. DEME
8. AB InBev
9. Ackermans & van Haaren
10. EVS

International contenders:

1. Amazon
2. Alphabet
3. S&P Global
4. Microsoft
5. Berkshire Hathaway
6. Besi
7. Novo Nordisk
8. Gaztransport & Technigaz
9. MercadoLibre
10. The Mosaic Company

Any more tips needed?

Did you know…

that Tottenham became the first football club to go public back in 1983? Tottenham has since disappeared from the stock market, but several football clubs—such as Ajax in the Netherlands, Borussia Dortmund in Germany and Manchester United in the United Kingdom—are still listed today. Unfortunately, often without much success on the stock exchange.

This article was translated from Dutch and was originally published on Spaarvarkens.be.