Hal Trust, The Discreet Long-term Compounder
Since our last teaser back in April 2024, Hal Trust has benefitted from a phenomenal run in oil services stocks, and from the continued good operational performance of Boskalis. At the time, the company was sitting on a c.€2.8bn cash pile (including marketable securities) that has remained stable despite several acquisitions that reveal Hal Trust’s strategy around long-term compounders. This long-term focus is expressed via minimal communication with the market, leading to a discount to our NAV that supports our positive recommendation on the name (+21% upside).
A portfolio of assets that barely changes
Hal Trust's strategy is simple, and consists of acquiring and holding significant stakes in companies where it plays an active role, with the goal of increasing long term value. The company thus does not have a predetermined investment horizon per se. The result of this strategy is a portfolio concentrated around two stocks that have performed very well over a long period of time: Boskalis, which has been held since 1989, and Vopak since 1999, together representing more than 50% of the portfolio. These two holdings well summarise the kind of businesses preferred by Hal Trust, asset-heavy industrial businesses like Boskalis, active in the oligopolistic market of dredging, benefitting from the long term trend of an increasing need for offshore energy production; but also more asset light businesses, such as oil services, which are highly cash generative, with Technip Energies being the perfect example. In both instances, these businesses tend to be very sensitive to the economic cycle, which makes these assets cheaper, a feature that can be well exploited by a long-term holder such as Hal Trust.
The portfolio has some degree of transparency with 33% of the GAV as listed assets, although it used to be more prior to the sale of its majority stake in eyewear retailer Grandvision (which was held since 1996), and the delisting of Boskalis, when Hal Trust bought out the minorities in 2022. The company has still managed to have some degree of sector diversification: in healthcare (Auxilium), building and home improvement sector (Van Wijnen),and real estate in Seattle, although the Dutch trope remains very pronounced.
New investments with strong strategic fit
Another interesting feature of Hal Trust is that it remains a good old-fashioned holding company, which does not succumb to the latest frenzy around private assets. The group does not segregate by type of assets, but focuses on its fundamental potential as witnessed by its diverse investments since early 2024. The group notably built a significant stake in listed Siltronic AG, crossing the 15% threshold in April 2025 at depressed prices, profiting from the cheap price of a cyclical semiconductor wafer stock reaching bottom in an oligopolistic market, quite similar features to Boskalis.
In February 2024, Hal invested €140m in preferred shares of Koppert TopCo B.V., the global leader in biological solutions for agriculture, an original investment as a type of asset, but also in terms of timing. Indeed, this type of green play is much less fashionable today, although we know that consumers increasingly want to avoid chemical pesticides, meaning that it banks on the green transition when valuations become interesting again, another smart move in our opinion.
Finally, the group announced the acquisition of VolkerWessels Nederland B.V., the Dutch Construction and Property Development and Infrastructure activities of VolkerWessels for an EV of €1.6bn, i.e. c.5x trailing EBITDA, a very reasonable price. This is clearly an investment in a capital-intensive industry, not very sexy, at the bottom of the cycle, as construction has been impacted by higher interest rates and materials inflation post the Ukraine invasion. Furthermore, Hal Trust is investing in an area that it knows well, as it already has a construction company Van Wijnen, which might thus create synergies.
Enigmatic governance
These smart investments to build a coherent portfolio of long-term compounders are clearly a sign of smart governance, but there is a clear wish to remain in the dark. There is no IR, no earnings call and Hal Trust itself is a really complex legal set up, being a Bermudian trust of Hal Holding, a Curaçao (Dutch Antilles) company that owns the assets. The most troubling element is perhaps the shareholding structure, on which there has been no update since 2006 on the AFM website, the Dutch market regulator, and no information is given on the group’s website and documents. The trust purpose seems to gather the interests of three groups of shareholders (De Zwarte Bergen, Blanca Flor Corp and H.D. Melchers), leaving only a 12.4% free float.
Despite this enigmatic governance, there appears to be no major historical red flag for minority shareholders, effectively being treated like free riders with no say on operations or strategy, but getting their fair share of profits through regular dividends and incredible NAV compounding.
A financially sound compounder
Despite a quite asset-heavy balance sheet, Hal Trust manages to create value as witnessed by a ROCE of 10.9% expected for 2025, and the spectacular rise in free cash flows since 2006, which have been quite lumpy due to the macroeconomic sensitivity of its assets, but the model seems to work out well over a long time period. Note that dividends received represent only 15% of operating cash flows, as Vopak is consolidated. The group is quite conservative on the leverage side, with a net cash position of c.€2.8bn including marketable securities, and offers a stable dividend yield of 2.5%, based on December volume-weighted average share price since 2021, a level generally on par with peers’ average.
Hidden value in private assets
Despite the proven investment strategy of Hal Trust, the stock remains derated, presumably due to a lack of transparency on the governance side, but also because the value of many assets is hidden. Indeed, Hal Trust does not provide a NAV based on the fair value of its unquoted assets, but only on their book value, meaning that NAV is undervalued, as unlisted assets represent two-thirds of the portfolio. We thus applied EV/EBIT or EV/Sales multiples based on listed peers covered by AV for almost all those assets, and find ourselves with a 13% discount to NAV, which is c.€2bn higher than the NAV provided by Hal Trust in H1 25, at €18.1bn. All other valuation methods point towards an upside as well, except for the dividend yield, following the strong share price performance at the beginning of the year. Clearly, blind confidence is needed when investing in Hal Trust, but hidden value can be unlocked for investors who do their homework.
A portfolio of assets that barely changes
Hal Trust's strategy is simple, and consists of acquiring and holding significant stakes in companies where it plays an active role, with the goal of increasing long term value. The company thus does not have a predetermined investment horizon per se. The result of this strategy is a portfolio concentrated around two stocks that have performed very well over a long period of time: Boskalis, which has been held since 1989, and Vopak since 1999, together representing more than 50% of the portfolio. These two holdings well summarise the kind of businesses preferred by Hal Trust, asset-heavy industrial businesses like Boskalis, active in the oligopolistic market of dredging, benefitting from the long term trend of an increasing need for offshore energy production; but also more asset light businesses, such as oil services, which are highly cash generative, with Technip Energies being the perfect example. In both instances, these businesses tend to be very sensitive to the economic cycle, which makes these assets cheaper, a feature that can be well exploited by a long-term holder such as Hal Trust.
The portfolio has some degree of transparency with 33% of the GAV as listed assets, although it used to be more prior to the sale of its majority stake in eyewear retailer Grandvision (which was held since 1996), and the delisting of Boskalis, when Hal Trust bought out the minorities in 2022. The company has still managed to have some degree of sector diversification: in healthcare (Auxilium), building and home improvement sector (Van Wijnen),and real estate in Seattle, although the Dutch trope remains very pronounced.
New investments with strong strategic fit
Another interesting feature of Hal Trust is that it remains a good old-fashioned holding company, which does not succumb to the latest frenzy around private assets. The group does not segregate by type of assets, but focuses on its fundamental potential as witnessed by its diverse investments since early 2024. The group notably built a significant stake in listed Siltronic AG, crossing the 15% threshold in April 2025 at depressed prices, profiting from the cheap price of a cyclical semiconductor wafer stock reaching bottom in an oligopolistic market, quite similar features to Boskalis.
In February 2024, Hal invested €140m in preferred shares of Koppert TopCo B.V., the global leader in biological solutions for agriculture, an original investment as a type of asset, but also in terms of timing. Indeed, this type of green play is much less fashionable today, although we know that consumers increasingly want to avoid chemical pesticides, meaning that it banks on the green transition when valuations become interesting again, another smart move in our opinion.
Finally, the group announced the acquisition of VolkerWessels Nederland B.V., the Dutch Construction and Property Development and Infrastructure activities of VolkerWessels for an EV of €1.6bn, i.e. c.5x trailing EBITDA, a very reasonable price. This is clearly an investment in a capital-intensive industry, not very sexy, at the bottom of the cycle, as construction has been impacted by higher interest rates and materials inflation post the Ukraine invasion. Furthermore, Hal Trust is investing in an area that it knows well, as it already has a construction company Van Wijnen, which might thus create synergies.
Enigmatic governance
These smart investments to build a coherent portfolio of long-term compounders are clearly a sign of smart governance, but there is a clear wish to remain in the dark. There is no IR, no earnings call and Hal Trust itself is a really complex legal set up, being a Bermudian trust of Hal Holding, a Curaçao (Dutch Antilles) company that owns the assets. The most troubling element is perhaps the shareholding structure, on which there has been no update since 2006 on the AFM website, the Dutch market regulator, and no information is given on the group’s website and documents. The trust purpose seems to gather the interests of three groups of shareholders (De Zwarte Bergen, Blanca Flor Corp and H.D. Melchers), leaving only a 12.4% free float.
Despite this enigmatic governance, there appears to be no major historical red flag for minority shareholders, effectively being treated like free riders with no say on operations or strategy, but getting their fair share of profits through regular dividends and incredible NAV compounding.
A financially sound compounder
Despite a quite asset-heavy balance sheet, Hal Trust manages to create value as witnessed by a ROCE of 10.9% expected for 2025, and the spectacular rise in free cash flows since 2006, which have been quite lumpy due to the macroeconomic sensitivity of its assets, but the model seems to work out well over a long time period. Note that dividends received represent only 15% of operating cash flows, as Vopak is consolidated. The group is quite conservative on the leverage side, with a net cash position of c.€2.8bn including marketable securities, and offers a stable dividend yield of 2.5%, based on December volume-weighted average share price since 2021, a level generally on par with peers’ average.
Hidden value in private assets
Despite the proven investment strategy of Hal Trust, the stock remains derated, presumably due to a lack of transparency on the governance side, but also because the value of many assets is hidden. Indeed, Hal Trust does not provide a NAV based on the fair value of its unquoted assets, but only on their book value, meaning that NAV is undervalued, as unlisted assets represent two-thirds of the portfolio. We thus applied EV/EBIT or EV/Sales multiples based on listed peers covered by AV for almost all those assets, and find ourselves with a 13% discount to NAV, which is c.€2bn higher than the NAV provided by Hal Trust in H1 25, at €18.1bn. All other valuation methods point towards an upside as well, except for the dividend yield, following the strong share price performance at the beginning of the year. Clearly, blind confidence is needed when investing in Hal Trust, but hidden value can be unlocked for investors who do their homework.
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