Ackermans & Van Haaren NV (ACKB) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Dear shareholders, I'm extremely proud of the resilience shown by our group companies in these still volatile post-COVID times. All segments have increased their contribution at half year above the pre-COVID first half 2019 results based upon a new record order book at DEME and continued record inflows at both Delen Private Bank and Bank J.Van Breda, AvH is well positioned to post a record net operational result for the full year of 2021. This is an amazing performance bouncing back so strongly from this pandemic crisis. Congratulations to all our management teams and to all our colleagues. Over the last years and as illustrated again by our recent investments, we have focused our investment strategy on building a more sustainable society, renewable energy through DEME, sustainable food and agriculture through SIPEF and Biotalys, health care services towards an aging population, digitalization of services and processes through OMP, but as well Mediahuis and our banks, both growing their digital products and services. Sustainalytics has recently recognized this increased focus by awarding us an improved ESG risk rating of 12.5. But we believe we can still do a better job in creating more transparency on this consistent performance, this focused strategy is generating. Delen Private Bank and Bank J.Van Breda are more than ever operating in close synergy in the Belgian private banking market. Their combined figures, as illustrated by the growth of assets under management and the very strong ratios makes them a consistent outperformer compared to their European peers. By combining Leasinvest and Extensa, we created a quoted integrated real estate investment and development group with a net equity of almost EUR 800 million. DEME is a world market leader in the development and construction of offshore wind energy. And this market is just starting to become a global market, and the promising new development of green hydrogen is adding a new layer of potential growth. And we will continue to focus our investment priorities on strengthening our core group companies and seizing opportunities around the sustainable investment teams we have earmarked. COVID has accelerated fundamental trends in society as illustrated by the digital shift and the European Green Deal in battling climate change. And the AvH group companies are extremely well positioned to provide answers to these challenges. Therefore, I'm quite excited about the long-term outlook for our group and our ability to continue to outperform.