Each month, we peel the monthly reports of activity of funds (OPC) of small European values and summarize you in the form of a synthetic table the latest choices of the best managers. The objective: to help you better select them, to better understand their performance, and to allow you to easily follow the latest decisions of the best French “stock-picker”. And why not inspire yourself in your own choices of values.
July 2025: The month when Abivax set fire to benchmarks
The small and medium-sized French and European values continued to progress faster than the big ones last month, after more than three years of poor performance.
On the macro side, in the euro zone, the industry remains in contraction while the services restart slowly, supported by the credit. On the microphone side, the half -yearly results have proven to be correct, leaving to hope for a fragile recovery in the second half.
It will be noted that the movement of rise in small values has been taking a speculative turning point for a few weeks. Indeed, after the traction of “defense” values then penny stocks Newly converted to cryptocurrencies, it was the biotech values that have taken over.
As such, on July 23 will have marked more than one manager of daily benchmarking. Indeed that day, as long as the CAC Small index constitutes the reference index of a fund, the multiplication by more than 6 (+510%!) Of Abivax which published phase III positive results made the benchmark unbeatable this year. With its more than 13% increase on July 23, CAC Small went within a few days from +30% to +55% in ” year to date “, YTD for friends. Other biotech values (Cellectis, Adocia, Nanobiotix, Valneva …) have followed the step and the Next Biotech index, in bad shape since the start of the year (and still as badly damn in terms of weights), jumped 34% in … July!
Elsewhere in Europe, Abivax also had its effect on the MSCI EMU Micro index which won 6.8% in July, largely in front of the +0.9% of the Stoxx 600 and the +1.1% monthly MSCI Emall.
Finally, note that if almost all the funds that have followed one another in our selection for years have not been invested in biotechs, a fund rather efficient in recent years is largely detached in 2025 and over 12 months slippery thanks to its positioning on Abivax. This is the Claresco PME fund which thanks to an increase of 13.6% on July 23 is up 54% from the 1is January.
Evolution, dividends included, indices of French shares by capitalization size since 1is January 2025
This story will not fail to mark the multi -year or even decennial performance of the CAC Small index, once again showing the limit of the indices whose component weights are not capped. Anyway, the small values find colors and this is excellent news!
Evolution, dividends included, of various indices of small capitalizations over 10 years slippery at 15/08/2025
General remarks
(Source: Quantalys, monthly report for management companies)
In general, we note that:
- The selection funds displayed a 2025 performance of +22.7% on average at the end of July. The Independence Europe Small and Tailor Actions Entrepreneurs are largely in the lead with performance of 37% and… +44% respectively! The latter took advantage of very domestic sectors in 2025 such as defense, engineering, construction or even finance.
- Among the very detained or recently purchased files by our selection of funds, we notably identify GTT, Wavestone, Aubay, Esseil, Exosens, Neurons, Robertet, Elis, Thermador, Trigano, Travelers du Monde, Guillin, Reway, Technip Energies, Tecnicas Reunidas, Mayor Tecnimont, Saf-Holland, Theon International and Theon International and Theon International and Theon International Group Vuse.
- Note the entry into the selection of two new funds this month: Quadrige France Small Caps, which has not yet published its report at the end of July this Monday morning, and Lazard Investisssement Microcaps.
The last arbitrations of the pros
- Independence Europe Small “Mainly lightened its investment in The Navigator and sold that in Indel B. Conversely, the fund has essentially strengthened in Mota Engil and Cie Automotive companies” while its defense values (Dassault, Theon …) were under pressure. Independence France Small & Mid « was formed a new position in Var Energi, which is weakly valued. He lightened up on Rheinmetall, whose valuation is high ”. The two funds took advantage of the rebound (+17%) of Hoegh Autoliners, whose “confirmation of prices in the United States reassures” while the company benefits from a “very low valuation (per 2025th 3.8x at the end of June)”.
- Lazard Investissement Microcaps “took profits from the position in Jensen-Group and continued to reduce the lines in envipco and Cembre. The flows from these transfers have notably been reinvested in Powersoft, Bilendi, B&C speakers, Ringmetall and Nurminen Logistics. Finally, we have formed a new position in magis, Italian family company specializing in technical adhesive ribbons. After a period of significant investment in its main factory, Magis now generates substantial cash flows with a return to employee capital of 37% and a high EBIT margin (two-digit). This economic performance does not seem to us to be reflected in the current level of valuation of the group, which we consider particularly attractive.
- HMG Discovered PME C took advantage of withdrawals deemed excessive to strengthen Aramis, Fnac-Darty, or Imerys. “Likewise, before their beautiful publications, the lines in Mersen and Lisi were completed. In addition to reinforcements in virbac, neurons (digitalization advice) and stone & vacation, two special situations have also been reinforced: the company Holding Compagnie du Cambodge, which conceals, over time, very strong bull potential for a risk which seems very measured; And the ESSO group which should be able to benefit from much better margins of refining with recent restrictions on imports of products from Russia (already excellent margins in July, at 67 euros/ton). We have also initiated a position in Peugeot Invest. This diversified holding company belonging to 80% to the Peugeot family presents a record on the value of its assets (currently 55%), in particular due to multiple disappointments recorded on the portfolio under the aegis of a previous management team. We rely on a gradual reduction of this discount, with the arrival last year of a new director general, which is also likely to improve the alignment of interests with the minority shareholders. Finally, the first position (at 32% of the assets) of this holding company is made up of Stellantis actions which currently have lived at their lowest level for five years, after having dramatically dropped these last twelve months (-46%) ”.
- HMG Discovered C Bets on the “rebound in the building renovation activity, in MR DIY and the thermador. In the same spirit of a resumption of the real estate cycle, a position in Hexaom was initiated. Hexaom, a real estate promoter, leader in the individual house sector should soon be able to confirm a very strong commercial activity, while its valuation remains that of a “low cycle” within 5 times its operating profit, in corporate value. We also participated in the IPO (and then completed our line) of the component specialist for the manufacture of semiconductors, SEMCO Technologies, an operation for once reasonably valued for a very profitable company (36% operational margin) in a sector naturally carrying growth. On the allege side, three lines were ended: we took advantage of the beautiful recent stock markets to give in the balance of our positions in GL events, Figeac Aero and Solocal ”.
NB: Funds were selected according to their long -term performance (we have retained a period of 5 years, a duration generally retained for investment in combination funds), their volatility and their high weighting in small French values (minimum 20% of the fund).
