"He who laughs last laughs best" is the message the President sent yesterday Metlen, Evangelos Mytileneus from the step of the Company's Annual General Meeting, answering a shareholder question about short selling which in recent months has been pushing the share.
"The advantage of the company," said Evangelos Mytileneus, "in relation to the funds that choose to short Metlen's share, is that the company knows about its course and its development, which will possibly accelerate and bring a significant increase in its size. On the contrary, those who short, rely on information or draw conclusions, but without access to information about its current course.
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"But if that's the case," he noted, and "the company's progress for any reason is accelerating too quickly, Those who have shorted it will They all have to leave that door together. And you have to go through a small door because long-term investors don't sell for anything, have the shares and the shorts placed should find the shares at any price. What will be created At the door is the short squeeze ( the phenomenon on the stock market where a stock rises very quickly and forces those who have taken short positions to buy the stock to close their losses — which ultimately pushes the price even higher).
He noted that the risk of losing a lot of shortlisted ones is great and explained that while shareholders placed in the long term in the company, the greatest risk is to lose some of the value with which they have been placed, contrary to the amounts that may lose the funds that invest short, it is of the order of tens of millions because as he stressed, "this game it's not for little kids."
And one last, he concluded: "In this game for big kids,I don't know. "
The chronicle of the sauté at Metlen
From September 19, 2025 to May 15, 2026, METLEN's share was consistently found in the short funds target, with a total of 45 clean short positions statements from 9 different investment schemes. This period coincided with the transfer of the company's main import to London, when the share was negotiated near 49 euros.
The fund with the greatest presence was Covalis Capital LLP, which deposited 10 different short positions in the stock. Followed by Marshall Wace LLP and Millennium Capital Management (DIFC) with 7 short commands each, and AKO Capital LLP and Millennium International Management LP made six moves. The Qube Research & Technologies Limited appeared four times, J.PMorgan Asset Management (UK) Ltd 3 times, while once the GLG Partners LP and Voleon Capital Management LP.
The picture shows that the pressure on the stock did not come from a single fund but from a successive and multi-front shorting strategy, which intensified particularly after the first negative news of the progress of the results and problems in the Protos project in Britain. Most funds gradually increased their positions while the share was falling from EUR 49 to the EUR 35-37 zone.
The largest decline in the share in the period considered was when it retreated up to 32.7 euros at the end of March 2026, recording losses of about 33% of September's starting levels.
Today the share moves close to 37,5-38 euros, which means that from 19 September 2025 until today the total drop is about 23%-24%.
The path to EUR 2 billion EBITDA: Magnify each activity
The behavior of short selling funds does not concern the Metlen President as he knows better the prospect of Metlen. His optimism about the course of 2026, was shown both by the estimate for annual EBITDA records at 1–115 billion euros, and for forecasting for a large increase in the group's revenue in 2026 showing that 2026 will be a record year for the company.
METLEN's new strategic plan, aimed at EBITDA around EUR 2 billion in the medium term (in 3-5 years), includes energy and metals, development in critical raw materials and defence industries, and exploitation of infrastructure and concessions. The administration presents the project as the «third season» The company's motto "Progress in Motion".
Each sector and activity of the group has a potential for growth in the coming years as the group has an energy portfolio of RES of nearly 12 GW internationally, major energy storage projects, significant investment in gallium and alumina, the development of Volos Defence Hub with 6 factories and the prospect of becoming an autonomous company in the medium term, an unexecuted infrastructure of around EUR 2 billion, and possible IPO of the infrastructure sector, but also extension to the LNG market and gas trading.
Discussions with EDF about Data Centers, Nuclear, Joint venture in RES
Extroversion characterizes Metlen not only because it is active in 48 countries, it has presence on five continents and almost 50% of the revenue now comes from outside Greece. Nor only, because it also implements 87 construction projects in 11 countries, including photovoltaic parks, energy storage projects and network infrastructure and data center.
But why both the energy sector and defence are reinforced by cooperation with abroad. In this context, Mr Mytilinos met with its President EDF investigating partnerships. Closer design is the creation of a joint company for the joint development of thousands of MW of photovoltaics abroad, but also in the construction of data centers and more future nuclear power plants.
"We discussed with her president EDF yesterday for new projects," he noted, while adding that at the heart of the debate was also the nuclear energy; as well as photovoltaics, which normally take a hybrid form with batteries.
Regarding data centers, Mr. Mytileneus said that there is a strong interest from the French in cooperation so that Metlen can build and EDF can sell electricity. As Metlen said, she has experience in the construction of such projects and has already beset two data centers in Greece.
Also, the sector in which the French are interested in escalating their investments other than that of RES is nuclear. Also, the EDF President mentioned nuclear power of SMR 400 and 1500 MW units that the leading French group is interested in developing. In any case, as Metlen's president told the G.S. "it's too early for investments in this industry."
Metal-Defence-Infrastructure
The administration said it has «lock» through hedging aluminium and alumina prices for 2026 and 2027 at higher levels, while ensuring lower energy costs. This considers it to create strong profitability visibility over the next few years. Special reference is made to the French project, which is directly linked to the European strategy for critical raw materials and defence applications.
At the same time, it also referred to Production of gallium which will begin in the second half of 2027 and is in demand 50 times the quantity offered, the president said.
The expansion of aluminium production capacity, which is under way, and the investment in gallium, which is also under way, a strategic raw material recognised at European level, reflect the group's ambition to form new industrial value chains combining energy, technology and industrial policy.
Emphasis also gives circular metals and the pilot plant in Sindos is about 65% complete, aiming at its operation in the first quarter of 2027, with initial production of copper, nickel, cobalt and zinc oxides. In metals, the expansion of the aluminium refinery from 865,000 to 1.25 million tons is under construction.
In the defence sector, "Volos Defence Hub" is an ecosystem of six factories developed within a year, due to demand and new agreements from international strategic partnerships, which is directly linked to the great increase in defence spending in Europe. The management sees defence as a new profitability pillar for the group over the next few years and as the sector's contribution to the EBITDA of 2026 has been highlighted will be twice as high as 2025.
Ιδιαίτερη βαρύτητα δίνεται στον ενεργειακό τομέα. Η METLEN τονίζει ότι διαθέτει πλέον το πιο αποδοτικό θερμικό χαρτοφυλάκιο στην Ελλάδα, με παραγωγή 9,7 TWh και μερίδιο 21,4% στην προμήθεια ηλεκτρικής ενέργειας. Παράλληλα, αναδεικνύει την επέκταση των Ανανεώσιμων Πηγών Ενέργειας, με ώριμο και λειτουργικό χαρτοφυλάκιο 6,4 GW και συνολικό pipeline σχεδόν 12 GW διεθνώς.
Οι υποδομές και οι παραχωρήσεις, αποτελούν επίσης νέο μοχλό ανάπτυξης, με EBITDA που διπλασιάστηκε το 2025 και backlog έργων που έφθασε τα 2 δισ. ευρώ. Η διοίκηση σημείωσε ότι εξετάζει IPO του κλάδου μέσα στη χρονιά, εφόσον το επιτρέψουν οι συνθήκες της αγοράς.Όπως αναφέρθηκε,η εταιρεία εξελίσσεται με αλματώδη τρόπο με πρόβλεψη για ετήσιο τζίρο το 2026 1 δισ. Στο επίκεντρο του στρατηγικού ενδιαφέροντος δεν είναι μόνο ο τομέας των παραχωρήσεων αλλά όπως τονίστηκε από τη διοίκηση και νέοι τομείς που θα εκπλήξουν την αγορά.
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