Greek tycoon’s London pivot is gift for both sides

Metlen Energy & Metals SA

04/08/2025 11:06

Corrects in paragraph five to say rare metals, not rare earths. The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

By Yawen Chen

LONDON, Aug 4 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Evangelos Mytilineos is making a contrarian bet on London. As peers flee the UK market for punchier valuations elsewhere, the Greek tycoon has moved the primary listing of his $8 billion Metlen Energy & Metals MTLN.L from Athens to Britain. If a first-day share price bump can be sustained, both company and venue will benefit.

Given that UK take-privates are at their highest level since 2011 and UK boards salivate over higher assumed U.S. valuations, the concern is that a desperate Britain waves through ropey listings that exacerbate its predicament. But that ignores the potential for London’s institutional depth to still appeal to groups that have outgrown their domestic markets.

Compared to the UK, Greece’s bourse is less liquid. Metlen’s transformation from a family-run outfit to an integrated energy and aluminium group gives it a hybrid identity that could resonate with London investors used to evaluating miners, utilities, and defence contractors. Despite all the flak, a UK listing brings more exposure to tracker funds and deeper pockets.

Those new investors may see Metlen as undervalued. Energy accounted for nearly 70% of Metlen’s 1.1 billion euros of EBITDA last year, spanning wind farms, power trading, and electricity retail. Morgan Stanley expects that figure to rise to 1 billion euros by 2028. Apply a 7 times multiple, in line with integrated European utilities, and the division alone could be worth 7 billion euros.

The metals side, which includes aluminium, rare metals like gallium, copper reclaimed from waste, and defence materials for submarines and tanks, could see EBITDA double to 678 million euros. Blend sector multiples – 5 times for base metals players like Norsk Hydro NHY.OL, and 12 times for defence peers like Rheinmetall RHMG.DE, per Visible Alpha forecasts – and the unit could be worth over 4 billion euros.

Add an infrastructure arm estimated at 700 million euros, per Morgan Stanley, and Metlen’s enterprise value could reach 12 billion euros. Strip out 2.6 billion euros of net debt, and that implies a 40% premium to Metlen’s current 6.7 billion euro market cap. Investors have started to take notice: the stock is already up 40% this year after Mytilineos decided on London and forecast a doubling of EBITDA in the medium term.

An initial 8% pop in early Monday trading admittedly fell back somewhat later in the morning. Some of Metlen’s EBITDA comes from transporting Russian pipeline and liquefied natural gas, which carries political noise. Yet Mytilineos, who holds roughly a fifth of the company, presides over a conservative balance sheet – net debt is only 1.4 times forecast 2028 EBITDA. With London’s status as an equity market hub on the ropes, credible new entrants are overdue.

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CONTEXT NEWS

Shares in Metlen Energy & Metals started trading on the London Stock Exchange on August 4. They were up 4% at 49 euros as of 0914 GMT.

Metlen confirmed on July 29 it had completed its voluntary share exchange offer with an acceptance rate of over 90%, paving the way for the UK’s highest value listing in nearly a year.

Metlen shares have grown over 500% in the past five years https://www.reuters.com/graphics/BRV-BRV/xmvjebnojpr/chart.png

(Editing by George Hay and Neil Unmack; Production by Oliver Taslic)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on CHEN/yawen.chen@thomsonreuters.com))