Lufthansa, TUI, Desert Gold - Explosive turnaround at the start of 2022!

Lufthansa - The top dog fights for its slots

The huge capital increase in 2021 has given the German crane airline a little breathing room in international air traffic for the time being. Nevertheless, the competitive situation remains incredibly difficult for a full-program provider.

In order to be able to offer an attractive route portfolio after the pandemic, Lufthansa is currently struggling to achieve a minimum utilization of its slots in Europe. Ireland's Ryanair mocked its German competitor for the so-called "ghost flights", as the Irish are interested in more takeoff and landing rights. To secure takeoff and landing rights at airports, Lufthansa recently announced 18,000 possible empty flights.

At the same time, the Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair appealed to the EU Commission to allocate unused or little-used routes elsewhere. In Europe, the awarding of takeoff and landing rights is tied to the utilization of flights. Until now, the rule has been that an airline can only permanently retain a time slot for a takeoff or landing if it uses it at least 80% of the time. However, due to many flight cancellations during the pandemic, this rule was suspended.

Low-cost airlines such as Ryanair complained because they, in turn, have an interest in the slots. Since March 2021, airlines have had to use 50% of their slots to keep them - considered unrealistic by many airlines as air traffic continues to be severely constrained by the pandemic. Tough constraints, but fair. After all, airlines should only be present in the skies on a permanent basis if their planes are also sufficiently full. For climate protection alone, flying today demands more flexibility from air travelers.

The Lufthansa share got off to a good start in 2022, gaining 20% in the first two weeks. That is precisely the loss it posted for the full year 2021. Nevertheless, despite all the disputes about takeoff and landing rights, the airline is likely to have bottomed out.

Desert Gold Ventures - Super drill results from West Africa

Patience is rewarded. Right at the start of the year, there is excellent news from West Africa. The Canadian Company Desert Gold Ventures Inc. is a gold explorer that focuses on deposits in the African state of Mali. Many big players are active there. The country ranks high in gold deposits, and its government is very friendly to mining companies.

Desert Gold has now examined in more detail a part of the 410 sq km property called SMSZ and is delivering good results. The property is the largest contiguous non-producing land package in this region of the country. Initial Proven and Indicated Mineral Resources of 8.47 million tonnes at 1.14 g/t Au and Projected Mineral Resources of 20.7 million tonnes at 1.16 g/t Au yield 310,300 and 769,200 ounces of gold, respectively. Desert Gold has entered the league of million-ounce projects with these measurements. In doing so, the initial mineral resource contained pit-restricted gold mineralization from five occurrences, all within a 12 km radius of each other.

Desert Gold's President & CEO Jared Scharf commented: "The release of this initial mineral resource estimate is an important milestone for the Company and represents a great starting point. We believe that with further drilling, the Company can significantly expand these resources and develop new areas such as the Gourbassi North West discovery. We expect a busy year with a drilling program of more than 20,000 meters and have high expectations on the results."

The Company completed its recently announced drill program at Gourbassi North West. 72 drill holes totaling 2,890 meters were completed along the initially projected strike length of 1.5 km. The release of assay results is expected in the coming weeks.

With the news, the Desert share (DAU) has already reached the price level of CAD 0.145; with a gold price that continues to be driven by inflation, it should succeed in overcoming CAD 0.20 in 2022. Then the chart would technically be free to go up again. Take pieces from the market as the next few drill results will likely provide another push.

TUI - Hope revived for the 2022 tourism year

After years of decline, the beleaguered European tourism market leader TUI is breaking new ground and looking to grow again. TUI will adopt new financing methods for the planned expansion after the pandemic. For example, new properties will no longer be financed solely by the Company itself but by investors who want to diversify into distant countries. Special investment funds are to be set up for this purpose.

TUI plans to build more than 100 new hotels in the coming years, and up to 6 new cruise ships are to be added despite the current lull at sea. However, a look at the balance sheet reveals a high debt ratio to the willing investor, so such investments will only be possible with the help of equity investors. Whether this will pay off for TUI on balance is a question of the cost of capital, which in turn will be calculated according to the prevailing risk factors in the tourism industry.

According to an advance report by WirtschaftsWoche, Peter Krüger, the board member responsible for strategy, has already confirmed the interest of various investors. According to Krüger, the new system would be a "win-win constellation" because TUI's expertise in top locations, its marketing and in-house airlines would ensure the corresponding capacity utilization. That would also generate the related return in the portfolio for the investors. The creative financing ideas of Chief Strategy Officer Krüger sound promising. After all, he worked as an investment banker at Deutsche Bank until 2017, so he should know his financial trade.

Technically, the situation with the TUI share is now very interesting. The EUR 2.50 to 2.70 zone offers itself as support. A buy signal is already generated above EUR 3.20. Those who invest speculatively should set a tight stop at EUR 2.85 and simply let the profits run.

The scenario changes at the beginning of the year because investors have new investment budgets, and 2021 is put aside. Therefore, it may also be more speculative at certain levels. All three stocks presented have more than 50% potential - we are curious to see who will win the race at the end of the first half of 2022. Desert Gold is small but a possible surprise stock for the next gold bull market.