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‘Fortune cookie’ Lotus gets first foreign fan

The Berenberg stock exchange starts the follow-up of the cookie maker with a buy recommendation and a price target of 5,400 euros.

Lotus Bakeries

With a price gain of 28 percent so far in 2021, it is on its way for … the 18th time in the last 20 years to give the Bel20 a check. Over those two decades, the stock market value of the company from Lembeke increased by a factor of 100, from just under 40 million euros in 2001 to more than 3.8 billion euros today.

A track record that could no longer be hidden from the City of London: Berenberg is the first foreign stock exchange to start the succession, with a buy recommendation and a price target of 5,400 euros. The three Belgian stock exchanges that monitor the share (KBC Securities, ING and Degroof Petercam) have a ‘hold’ advice, with price targets between 4,400 and 4,700 euros.

In a 53-page report, lead analyst Mary-Anne Sixsmith praises the cookie maker from the Meetjesland under the headline ‘Fortune Cookie’.

She acknowledges that the stock is far from cheap at 37 times expected net earnings in 2022. ‘The high rating is justified. The expected organic growth is 8.5 percent and the track record of sustainability is impressive.’

With regard to the latter, Sixsmith refers to the CO2 neutrality that Lotus has achieved with its 12 factories since 2015. Also, almost 97 percent of the packaging is recyclable. ‘That is the highest figure among the food companies we monitor and should increase to 100 percent by 2025.’



The high rating of Lotus is justified. The expected organic growth is 8.5 percent and the track record of sustainability is impressive.

Mary-Anne Sixsmith

Chief Analyst Berenberg



And she says it doesn’t stop there. Due to the takeovers in recent years, Lotus is also strong in healthy food bars with brands such as Nakd, Trek and BEAR. “Even fairly conservative assumptions for market shares in Biscoff and Natural Foods suggest that those divisions could increase their sales by 120 and 70 percent, respectively, in the coming years.”

To prop up that growth, CEO Jan Boone stamped in the United States a few years ago a second caramelized biscuit factory from the ground up. Boone has great ambitions for that factory in North Carolina: ‘We are going to double it. Three extra caramelized biscuit lines should be available in three years’, it sounded early this year in the presentation of the annual figures.

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