He is the second richest person in the Netherlands: Remon Vos, CEO of logistics real estate company CTP. Last year, the year that he brought his company to the Amsterdam stock exchange and thereby sold part of his interest, his capital increased according to the Quote 500 by more than 200 percent to 5.7 billion euros.
CTP, in full Central Trade Park, is a company that owns and develops logistics halls and business parks, especially in Central and Eastern Europe. It is one of the companies in the real estate sector that has benefited from the corona pandemic. While the construction and rental of office and retail properties came under pressure, ‘logistics’ was precisely the segment that grew due to the increase in online shopping. The net profit of the real estate company tripled in 2021 to just above 1 billion euros.
Exactly one year after the IPO, the value of the CTP share is back to the level of then: 14 euros. In the course of 2021, the exchange rate rose to about 20 euros, but then it fell slightly.
However, the fund was promoted to the Midkap last week. That is nice for CTP, but it does not directly affect the price of the share, says analyst Pieter Runneboom, who follows the company for investment bank Kempen. “For the large professional investors we advise, a listing on the Midkap does not mean that much.” But it could be that CTP is now becoming more popular with private investors, he says. „Remon Vos is of course also someone who appeals to people: a sympathetic Groninger, a self made man who built his business from scratch.”
No hindrance from sanctions
CTP is big in Eastern Europe. Inevitably, therefore, the question arises: how will the war in Ukraine affect CTP’s results? CEO Vos recently said that CTP is not bothered by it, because it has no assets in Russia and Ukraine. As a result, CTP does not have to take the sanctions imposed into account and does not suddenly lose income.
“It is a bitter observation, but in the long term, this situation could actually have a positive effect on CTP,” says Runneboom. “We are already seeing companies move their production to NATO countries such as Romania.” That is precisely one of the countries where CTP has a strong market position as a developer of industrial and logistics parks.
And that is not the only development that could turn out to be beneficial for CTP, says Runneboom. He calls the corona pandemic, the closed factories in China, the stalled container ship in the Suez Canal: events that have caused problems in the supply of goods and raw materials. “Producing in Asia may have been cheap, but this system has also proven to be very vulnerable over the past two years.”
Runneboom sees that companies are now bringing their production back to Europe. And according to him, Central Europe is the right place. “The Czech Republic, for example, has historically been an industrial superpower within Europe.”
Central and Eastern Europe may be promising markets, but CTP is now also trying to gain a foothold in Western Europe. Last year it took over competitor Deutsche Industrie and now the company also owns CTPark Rotterdam and Amsterdam Logistic Cityhub, a logistics center under construction.
Runneboom thinks the company will grow again this year. “That will eventually translate into stock market value.” He expects the CTP share price to return to last summer’s level within a year.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of March 28, 2022