Luc Tack must regain the trust of Tessenderlo investor

'The market seems to have completely lost confidence in Tack,' says Naard Broeckaert, a renowned asset manager.

Why is that?

Tessenderlo Group (illustration)

Journalist Evert Nerinckx puts his finger on the wound in De Tijd: 'As the main shareholder, chairman and CEO of the Tessenderlo Group, Mr Tack is firmly in charge, but for years he has been accused of having no regard for the interests of minority shareholders. The CEO also limits communication with investors to the absolute minimum.

The way he organised Tessenderlo's takeover of Picanol made minority shareholders even more unhappy. The exchange ratio for the takeover was very favourable for Picanol shareholders - especially Tack himself - and much less favourable for Tessenderlo shareholders. The independent directors of Tessenderlo also let this opportunistic move pass without comment.

It is a well-known fact that minority shareholders have long been treated like party decorations on the Brussels stock exchange: they are brought out when they are needed and then put back in the cupboard until the next party - or they are discarded as soon as possible. The examples are numerous, including several delistings at the bottom of the market.

The following quote: Several analysts who follow the stock have noted that almost all institutional investors have disappeared from Tessenderlo's capital in recent years, while these very parties are needed to rediscover - and revalue - the industrial group. This has left Tessenderlo with a problem shared by other Belgian listed companies: a lack of liquidity'. But this seems to point to a much bigger problem, namely that institutional investors are tired of being taken advantage of and are turning their backs on our stock exchange. The result is a decline in liquidity - and this is precisely the major problem facing the Brussels Stock Exchange as a whole.

Shouldn't the protection of minority shareholders be thoroughly reviewed in order to prevent further erosion of the stock market? For example, by extending the mandate and powers of the Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) to create a level playing field with large shareholders and their advisers?

And isn't it also time to take stronger action against reference shareholders and their advisers when corners are cut, to counter the sense of impunity among reference shareholders and powerlessness among minority shareholders?

Otherwise, the many private investors who have pinned their hopes on a revival of the Tessenderlo share ( or, by extension, of the Brussels stock exchange) may well be left empty-handed.

Go to original article 'De Tijd'

---

Automated translation (Chat GPT)