"At Ackermans & van Haaren, we build our business on the talent of people, partnerships and a good relationship with our shareholders. The values of our company have always been the strong fundamentals of the group."
John-Eric Bertrand and Piet Dejonghe, co-CEOs
Long-term perspective
- We make clear agreements with our participations regarding strategic, operational and financial goals;
- guided by our long-term strategy, we are prepared to help finance strategic projects of our participations through capital increases;
- our participations remain responsible for their own financial position;
- we strive for annual recurring growth of the results of each participation and of the group as a whole.
Sustainable
- We pay particular attention to sustainable development and growth of the activities of our participations, with respect for people, environment and society;
- we have developed an ESG policy based on UN Sustainable Development Goals and UN PRI guidelines, and we apply this policy within the group and to our own investment decisions;
- our investment philosophy is based on transparent reporting and communication, clear agreements in terms of corporate governance and business ethics, and strict
- financial discipline and healthy balance sheets;
- we want to help build a more sustainable world by investing in line with societal trends such as climate change, reduction of greenhouse gases (e.g. through renewable energy projects), sustainable food chain, population growth and ageing and digitalisation.
Active ownership
- We are proud of a successful track record of partnerships with families, co-shareholders and management teams;
- we invest in both majority and minority interests on the basis of balanced shareholder agreements;
- our experienced investment managers are actively involved in the governing bodies of the participations, assisted where necessary by external consultants and/or independent directors;
- we are a networked organisation, based on a diversity of personalities and backgrounds and on a permanent exchange of best practices between the group companies;
- we are in constant dialogue with the management teams of the participations and are involved in:
- selecting the senior management,
- defining the long-term strategy,
- actively supporting strategic projects (M&A, internationalisation, innovation and operational improvements).
Growth
- We are a group of entrepreneurs with the ambition to build leading companies through internationalisation, innovation and diversification in the long term;
- we create long-term shareholder value thanks to a recurring increase of the consolidated shareholders’ equity, supported by a steady long-term dividend growth;
- we focus on recurring growth of the activities, long-termgrowth of the operating cash flow and shareholders’ equity of the participations, rather than on absolute profitability targets or short-term dividend maximisation.