Germany's SEFE to Announce 10-Year Deal For Gas From Azerbaijan
Germany's state-owned SEFE is expected to announce a 10-year deal to buy gas from Azerbaijan's state-owned Socar, according to people familiar with the matter.
The agreement, which begins immediately, allows the German trading company to buy as much as 15 terawatt-hours of gas per year, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity. That's equivalent to about 1.5 billion cubic meters per year. The gas is likely to reach Europe via the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, two of the people said. TAP, crosses Northern Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea before coming ashore in southern Italy.
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38 minutes ago
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‘Don't Bet the Farm,' Says Analyst About Quantum Computing Stock (QUBT)
Just months after suggesting that the widespread adoption of quantum computing was still '15 to 20 years away,' Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang offered a much more optimistic outlook, sparking a rally in speculative quantum stocks, such as Quantum Computing, Inc. (QUBT). The tech pioneer is up 8.5% so far this week, with bullish sentiment at its peak. Easily unpack a company's performance with TipRanks' new KPI Data for smart investment decisions Receive undervalued, market resilient stocks right to your inbox with TipRanks' Smart Value Newsletter However, a deeper look reveals significant concerns about QUBT's financial position. And while the industry is making progress, scaling quantum systems to tackle real-world problems remains a massive challenge, particularly for a company of QUBT's size. Despite the broader enthusiasm for 'lifting all boats' in the sector, I remain bearish on QUBT. Being the CEO of a major tech company comes with significant influence—something Nvidia's Jensen Huang demonstrated at the GTC Paris developer conference when he declared that 'quantum computing is reaching an inflection point.' While his remarks centered on Nvidia's own innovations—like CUDA-Q, which aims to integrate quantum capabilities with classical systems—his optimism could have ripple effects across the sector. Nvidia backed its words with action in March 2025 by launching a new quantum computing research lab in Boston, reinforcing its leadership in the space. Huang's bullish tone may inspire increased venture capital and R&D investment across the quantum ecosystem. However, skepticism persists. Many still view practical quantum applications as decades away, with the industry struggling to define clear, real-world use cases that outperform traditional supercomputers. Without a breakthrough and tangible return on investment (ROI), quantum computing remains a tough sell to potential customers seeking immediate, measurable benefits. Quantum Computing Inc. specializes in photonic, or light-based, quantum solutions, developing Quantum Processing Units (QPUs) designed to operate at room temperature and low power, features that could make the technology more accessible and cost-effective. However, the company's focus remains on niche applications, such as remote sensing and computational chemistry, which limits its current market reach. While progress is being made in identifying use cases where quantum systems may outperform classical supercomputers, practical, scalable, and commercially viable applications are still emerging. The technology faces persistent challenges, including qubit fragility, high error rates, and scalability limitations. These machines are highly specialized and complex, suited for addressing targeted, advanced problems, but are not yet ready for broad commercial deployment. Quantum Computing's first-quarter 2025 earnings highlight just how early-stage its business remains. The company reported revenue of only $39,000—roughly equivalent to the median U.S. individual income—while operating expenses climbed to $8.3 million. A $23.6 million non-cash gain from the mark-to-market revaluation of its warrant liability resulted in a reported net income of $17 million. However, this masks the company's ongoing operational losses. On the operational front, the company completed construction of its Quantum Photonic Chip Foundry. It announced new partnerships, including a contract with NASA's Langley Research Center—a sign of growing institutional interest despite modest commercial traction so far. Quantum Computing's ~$3 billion market cap, despite minimal revenue, highlights an apparent disconnect from fundamentals and suggests the stock is driven largely by speculation. While the company holds $166 million in cash and cash equivalents, providing it with some runway to develop its technology, its R&D budget is modest compared to that of deep-pocketed rivals like IBM, Google, Microsoft, and Nvidia. Importantly, this cash position was built primarily through dilutive stock offerings and private placements, underscoring its heavy reliance on external funding. Given these constraints, it's difficult to envision a near-term path where Quantum Computing scales its niche technology into a broadly commercial product in a way that meaningfully rewards shareholders. Reflecting its speculative nature, Quantum Computing's analyst coverage is limited. Its Moderate Buy consensus rating is based on one Buy recommendation in the past three months. Its average price target of $14.00 implies a downside potential of ~27% over the next 12 months. Meanwhile, TipRanks AI assigns QUBT a Neutral rating and a price target of $22. It notes that Quantum Computing's strong balance sheet and Qatalyst software positions it favorably amid hardware advances and increasing demand. However, it also points out that QUBT sports a high valuation, especially in light of ongoing losses and minimal revenues. While quantum computing as a whole may be approaching an 'inflection point,' the outlook for pure-play firms like Quantum Computing Inc. remains highly speculative. With minimal revenue, the company is still far from its own inflection point, where its products gain broad commercial viability. Reaching that stage will likely require scientific breakthroughs and significant R&D investment, which Quantum Computing may struggle to match relative to well-funded giants like IBM. That said, growing industry momentum is a clear tailwind. Rising interest in the sector could lead to increased funding, larger contracts, and a stronger push toward practical applications. Quantum Computing's unique focus on room-temperature, low-power photonic quantum systems, along with its early, albeit modest, commercial traction, may appeal to risk-tolerant, long-term investors. Personally, I remain highly cautious. The company's weak financial performance, lofty valuation, and limited ability to compete with larger players make its long-term investment case difficult to justify at this stage. Disclaimer & DisclosureReport an Issue Sign in to access your portfolio
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42 minutes ago
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Estimating The Intrinsic Value Of BLD Plantation Bhd. (KLSE:BLDPLNT)
The projected fair value for BLD Plantation Bhd is RM10.68 based on 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity BLD Plantation Bhd's RM10.76 share price indicates it is trading at similar levels as its fair value estimate Industry average of 423% suggests BLD Plantation Bhd's peers are currently trading at a higher premium to fair value Does the June share price for BLD Plantation Bhd. (KLSE:BLDPLNT) reflect what it's really worth? Today, we will estimate the stock's intrinsic value by projecting its future cash flows and then discounting them to today's value. We will take advantage of the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model for this purpose. There's really not all that much to it, even though it might appear quite complex. Companies can be valued in a lot of ways, so we would point out that a DCF is not perfect for every situation. If you still have some burning questions about this type of valuation, take a look at the Simply Wall St analysis model. Trump has pledged to "unleash" American oil and gas and these 15 US stocks have developments that are poised to benefit. We are going to use a two-stage DCF model, which, as the name states, takes into account two stages of growth. The first stage is generally a higher growth period which levels off heading towards the terminal value, captured in the second 'steady growth' period. To begin with, we have to get estimates of the next ten years of cash flows. Seeing as no analyst estimates of free cash flow are available to us, we have extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the company's last reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years. Generally we assume that a dollar today is more valuable than a dollar in the future, and so the sum of these future cash flows is then discounted to today's value: 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 2033 2034 Levered FCF (MYR, Millions) RM80.1m RM68.1m RM61.7m RM58.3m RM56.7m RM56.2m RM56.5m RM57.3m RM58.5m RM60.0m Growth Rate Estimate Source Est @ -23.00% Est @ -15.01% Est @ -9.41% Est @ -5.50% Est @ -2.76% Est @ -0.84% Est @ 0.51% Est @ 1.45% Est @ 2.10% Est @ 2.57% Present Value (MYR, Millions) Discounted @ 8.4% RM73.9 RM58.0 RM48.5 RM42.2 RM37.9 RM34.7 RM32.2 RM30.1 RM28.4 RM26.8 ("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = RM413m We now need to calculate the Terminal Value, which accounts for all the future cash flows after this ten year period. For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of a country's GDP growth. In this case we have used the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield (3.6%) to estimate future growth. In the same way as with the 10-year 'growth' period, we discount future cash flows to today's value, using a cost of equity of 8.4%. Terminal Value (TV)= FCF2034 × (1 + g) ÷ (r – g) = RM60m× (1 + 3.6%) ÷ (8.4%– 3.6%) = RM1.3b Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= RM1.3b÷ ( 1 + 8.4%)10= RM586m The total value is the sum of cash flows for the next ten years plus the discounted terminal value, which results in the Total Equity Value, which in this case is RM999m. The last step is to then divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding. Compared to the current share price of RM10.8, the company appears around fair value at the time of writing. Remember though, that this is just an approximate valuation, and like any complex formula - garbage in, garbage out. We would point out that the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate and of course the actual cash flows. Part of investing is coming up with your own evaluation of a company's future performance, so try the calculation yourself and check your own assumptions. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at BLD Plantation Bhd as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 8.4%, which is based on a levered beta of 0.800. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business. Check out our latest analysis for BLD Plantation Bhd Although the valuation of a company is important, it is only one of many factors that you need to assess for a company. It's not possible to obtain a foolproof valuation with a DCF model. Instead the best use for a DCF model is to test certain assumptions and theories to see if they would lead to the company being undervalued or overvalued. For example, changes in the company's cost of equity or the risk free rate can significantly impact the valuation. For BLD Plantation Bhd, we've put together three essential aspects you should consider: Risks: To that end, you should be aware of the 2 warning signs we've spotted with BLD Plantation Bhd . Other Solid Businesses: Low debt, high returns on equity and good past performance are fundamental to a strong business. Why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals to see if there are other companies you may not have considered! Other Top Analyst Picks: Interested to see what the analysts are thinking? Take a look at our interactive list of analysts' top stock picks to find out what they feel might have an attractive future outlook! PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every Malaysian stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock just search here. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
an hour ago
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A Small Nation's Big Love for One of the Greatest Sports Cars Ever
The Porsche 911 isn't the kind of car you expect to see at the top of any country's sales charts, but the Principality of Andorra isn't just any country. This tiny nation, tucked high in the Pyrenees between France and Spain, has crowned the legendary sports car as its best-seller for 2024. With so many compact crossovers and fuel-efficient sedans dominating the world market, this is the kind of statistic that makes car enthusiasts do a double take. This insight originally came from a TikTok video by Launch Mode, which highlighted a report from Felipe Munoz (Car Industry Analysis), who works for auto research firm JATO Dynamics. The data showed that among the 2,379 passenger cars and light commercial vehicles sold in Andorra last year, the Porsche 911 led the way with 83 units sold—a staggering 40.7% increase from 2023. That put it ahead of other performance-focused models, including the Toyota GR Yaris and even Porsche's own Cayenne and Macan. With a population of just over 87,000, Andorra is known for its ski resorts, tax-friendly policies, and wealth. That last part plays a huge role in shaping the local car market. In 2024, the country saw 2,379 sales of new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles. Leading the pack was the Porsche 911, with 83 units sold — an astonishing 40.7% increase from the previous year. That put it ahead of performance-focused models like the Toyota GR Yaris and even Porsche's own Cayenne and Macan. There are a few key reasons why Andorra has become a haven for high-performance cars. First, the country's economic landscape makes luxury vehicles more attainable. Low tax rates and a strong tourism sector mean a significant portion of residents can afford cars that might be out of reach elsewhere. Second, the terrain is a dream for drivers. Winding mountain roads, crisp alpine air, and breathtaking views create the perfect environment for a car like the 911 to stretch its legs. Finally, there's a strong local appreciation for driving culture. Unlike in larger nations where practicality often wins out, Andorrans have the means and the desire to buy cars that thrill. What makes this trend even more fascinating is how different it is from the rest of the world. In the U.S., the Ford F-Series remains the undisputed king of car sales, with more than 700,000 trucks sold in 2024. The 911, while beloved, doesn't even come close to the top 25 best-selling vehicles in America. The contrast shows just how much geography, economy, and culture shape what people drive. Andorra's love for the Porsche 911 is more than just a sales anomaly—it's a reflection of a unique automotive culture. In a country where driving isn't just about getting from point A to point B, but about the thrill of the journey, it makes perfect sense that one of the world's most celebrated sports cars would take the crown.
