Distribution of company announcements to the professional platforms, finance portals and syndication of important corporate news to a wide variety of news aggregators and financial news systems.
Ackermans & van Haaren (EBR:ACKB) Interim report on the current state of affairs of the main group companies - Third quarter 2008 (Regulated information within the meaning of the Royal Decree of 14 November 2007)
CONTRACTING, DREDGING AND CONCESSIONS Driven by an almost complete fleet utilization in the third quarter, the turnover and profit targets of DEME for the financial year 2008 are maintained. Many new contracts have resulted in an increase of the order book, which amounted to 2,306 million euros at the end of October 2008 (versus 1,946 million euros at 30.06.08).
The main new contracts since June 30, 2008 are the following: * Port Rashid (Dubai): a contract of 390 million euros for the reclamation and expansion of Port Rashid, where residential and recreational facilities will be built for 200,000 people. The contract will be executed in a temporary joint-venture with Boskalis. * London Gateway Port: the development of a large new port area along the Thames in the United Kingdom. The project of a total of approximately 400 million pound will be carried out in a temporary joint-venture with Laing O'Rourke. * Amoras: an important assignment for the design, construction and exploitation of a silt treatment and storage system in the port of Antwerp. Half of this 400 million euros project will be performed by DEME. * South America: dredging in Manzanillo (Mexico) as part of the construction of an LNG terminal and a new contract for the dredging of the access channel to a new container terminal in Panama. Both contracts together represent a value of 40 million euros. * Asia: new dredging contracts in Taiwan and an environmental dredging assignment in the Philippines for a total amount of 100 million euros.
Taking into account this positive evolution of the order book, DEME is investigating further investments in its fleet within the context of the previously announced investment plan.
At ALGEMENE AANNEMINGEN VAN LAERE, all subsidiaries contributed positively to the result. The order book remained stable thanks to new contracts in, i.a., Vilvoorde, Machelen en Zoetermeer (the Netherlands).
REAL ESTATE AND RELATED SERVICES At the real estate investment trust LEASINVEST REAL ESTATE, the fair value of the real estate portfolio remained fairly constant at 487.0 million euros. The total value, including project developments, amounted to 513.3 million euros (versus 502.7 million euros at 30.06.08). The occupancy rate remained at a very high level of 97.30% (versus 97.06% at the end of the second quarter) and the rental yield was 7.20% (versus 7.15% at 30.06.08).
An office project of 1,585 m² was acquired in the city of Luxembourg in the third quarter. Additional investments were also made for the ongoing project Bian in Luxembourg.
The development activities of EXTENSA have clearly suffered from the slowdown in the demand for new housing parcels. Due to the low book value of the land bank and a number of new permits, this land development activity in Belgium has a low risk profile and maintains its recurring profit potential.
The permits for the further development of the Tour & Taxis site are in full preparation, amongst others for a first project of 16,000 m² for the Brussels environment company BIM/IBGE. The shopping centre in Focsani, Romania will be completed in the fourth quarter. The start of the sale of the residential project in Istanbul (Turkey) has been postponed with a couple of months due to the local market circumstances.
FINANCIAL SERVICES Despite the extremely volatile financial markets and the continued turmoil in the financial sector, both Bank Delen and Bank J.Van Breda & C° realised a strong commercial growth in the third quarter.
The assets under management of BANK DELEN amounted to 10,889 million euros at 30.09.08 (against 11,293 million euros at 30.06.08 and 12,126 million euros at the end of 2007). Taking into account the negative stock market impact over the first 9 months of 2008, this implies an important net increase of new assets under management.
The net equity of Bank Delen increased over the first 9 months of 2008 from 246 million euros to 271 million euros.
Bank Delen invests its own assets almost entirely in short term government bonds.
BANK J.VAN BREDA & C° has also shown a strong commercial performance with its target group clientele of entrepreneurs and liberal professions. The total assets deposited by clients increased to 4,940 million euros at 30.09.08 (compared to 4,827 million euros at 30.06.08 and 4,701 million euros at 31.12.07). The total volume of deposits increased in the third quarter with 5% to 2,063 million euro (or an increase of 9% over the first 9 months of 2008), and with respect to the off-balance sheet investments, the inflow compensated for the negative stock market effect.
The net equity of Bank J.Van Breda & C° increased over the first 9 months of 2008 from 207 million euros to 224 million euros.
Also Bank J.Van Breda & C° has a tradition to invest its portfolio very conservatively and almost entirely in government paper. Bank J.Van Breda & C° only grants loans to its target clients with whom it has a sustainable and global relationship. Furthermore, all loans are very diversified as to amounts and debtors. As a consequence, the write offs due to loan losses were very limited in the third quarter.
The niche approach of both banks and the traditionally extremely cautious investment strategy ensured that neither Bank Delen nor Bank J.Van Breda & C° have any 'subprime' securities or other 'toxic' products in their portfolio.
PRIVATE EQUITY Overall, the private equity participations continue to make an important, although lower, contribution to the group result. The impact of the financial crisis on the consumer confidence and the economic slowdown which is clearly evolving towards a profound recession have resulted in a decrease of the turnover and operational profit of some of the industrial participations in the third quarter.
AvH & Subholdings The net cash position of AvH amounted to 171.7 million euros at 30.09.2008 (against 207.6 million at 30.06.2008). This evolution is mainly driven by the decrease of the market value of the investments in KBC and Fortis with 31.6 million euros. Based on the current evolution of the stock price of Fortis, AvH expects a total negative impact on the results of the financial year 2008 of approximately 44 million euros (or 1.3 euro per share AvH).
Prospects 2008 Ackermans & van Haaren still expects to be able to realise a decent operational group result over the entire financial year 2008 thanks to the strong cycle in the dredging sector and the good commercial performance of its banks. In the mean time, the consequences of the weakening of the economic climate start to impact most group participations.
Calendar 2009
6 March 2009 annual results 2008 18 May 2009 interim report Q1 2009 25 May 2009 annual shareholders' meeting 27 August 2009 half year results 2009 16 November 2009 interim report Q3 2009
Ackermans & van Haaren is a diversified group active in 4 key sectors: contracting, dredging and concessions (DEME, one of the largest dredging companies in the world - Algemene Aannemingen Van Laere, a leading contractor in Belgium), Real Estate and related services (Leasinvest Real Estate, a listed real-estate investment trust with real estate assets of approximately 480 million euros - Extensa, an important land and real estate developer focused on Belgium, Luxemburg and Central Europe), private banking (Bank Delen, one of the largest independent private asset managers in Belgium - Bank J.Van Breda & C°, niche bank for entrepreneurs and liberal professions) and private equity (Sofinim, one of the largest private equity providers in Belgium, and GIB). The group concentrates on a limited number of strategic participations with an important potential for growth. The AvH share has been included in the reference index BEL20, the Private Equity NXT index of Euronext Brussels and as of 23 June in the European DJ Stoxx index 600.
Website All press releases issued by AvH and its most important group companies as well as the 'Investor Presentation' can also be consulted on the AvH website: www.avh.be. Anyone who is interested to receive the press releases via email has to register to this website, under the 'News' section.
For further information please contact: Luc Bertrand CEO - President of the Executive Committee tel: +32.3.231.87.70 e-mail : dirsec@avh.be
Jan Suykens Member of the Executive Committee tel: +32.3.897.92.36 e-mail : dirsec@avh.be
Tom Bamelis Member of the Executive Committee tel: +32.3.897.92.42 e-mail : dirsec@avh.be
This announcement was originally distributed by Hugin. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
