Hal Trust: how will they unlock value
Year review 2024
Short description
The Dutch investment company HAL Trust originated from the Holland America Line, a company that, as the name suggests, operated a shipping route between the Netherlands and America. In 1989, the company was sold, and with the proceeds, HAL Trust was established.
The founding Van der Vorm family is one of the wealthiest families in the Netherlands and is known for keeping a low profile. The Van der Vorm family owns about 68% of the shares, while CEO Melchert Groot holds around 17%.
HAL Holding is made up of HAL Real Estate and HAL Investments—at least, that's how the underlying websites are organized. In addition to these two divisions, there is also what they call the liquidity portfolio: a range of investments in bonds and publicly traded companies.
HAL Real Estate operates mainly in Seattle, USA, with investments in apartments, office buildings, retail spaces, and industrial properties. They also own several shopping centers in the Netherlands. Within the larger HAL Holding structure, the Real Estate branch accounts for just about 1% of the total value. That’s why the focus lies on HAL Investments.
HAL Investments includes both publicly listed minority stakes and privately held companies, where HAL is typically the majority shareholder. Among the listed companies, HAL has interests in Safilo, SBM Offshore, Technip Energies, and Vopak.
On the private side, their portfolio includes well-known names such as Boskalis, Broadview Holding, Coolblue, FD Mediagroup, and Van Wijnen, to name just a few.
Wy we selected Hal Trust
At HAL, it's common practice to include their privately held companies in the NAV (Net Asset Value) at either the purchase price or the most recent capital increase. Often, this is (significantly) below the actual value. In the past, we saw a perfect example of this with GrandVision when they took it public.
The question, of course, is whether that value will ever be realized. And with low growth, other holdings are starting to look more appealing. Still, I remain intrigued by the underlying value of the private investments. It's certainly higher than what's reflected on the books, but unfortunately, with the limited figures we get, it's impossible to estimate what that value might actually be.