Value Creation Awards 2014-2024

The chart below shows how $1 evolved in 1964 if it was invested in US government bonds (US Treasuries), in the US broad equity index (S&P 500) or in a Berkshire Hathaway stock. Investing in stocks seems to have been more than a good long-term protection against inflation. US 10-year interest rates, as well as inflation, have been positive in all these years; only in 2008 did inflation flirt with the 0% mark (0.1%).

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This track record has resulted in Berkshire Hathaway being the ninth largest publicly traded company in the world today with a market capitalization of 995 billion euros. The 10 largest publicly traded companies in the world are: Microsoft (3.012 bln euros), Nvidia (2.946 bln euros), 3. Apple (2.815 bln euros), 4. Amazon (1.947 bln euros), 5. Alphabet (1.806 bln euros), 6. Saudi Arabian Oil Company (1.505 bln euros), 7. Meta Platforms (1.436 bln euros), 8. Tesla (1.006 bln euros), 9. Berkshire Hathaway (995.2 bln euros) and 10. Broadcom (965 bln euros). SAP is the most valuable European company in place 25 (326 bn euros), Number 2 and 3 in Europe are luxury producers Hermes in place 31 (273 bn euros) and LVMH in place 37 (252 bn euros).

Belgium's largest listed company, brewer AB Inbev, ranks 122 with a market capitalization of 122 billion euros.(data on 19/05/2025 Bloomberg).

Methodology

The evolution of book value is a good indicator of the evolution of intrinsic or "real" value. In our study, we assess fundamental value creation using the following formula: we take the book value per share at the end of 2024, to which we add all the net dividends received in cash by a private shareholder over the past 10 years; finally, we compare this sum with the book value per share at the end of 2014. From this quotient, we calculate the compound interest rate to obtain the value creation per year.

The book value per share is obtained by dividing consolidated equity (group share) by the number of shares at the end of the financial year (excluding treasury shares). Furthermore, we make adjustments for capital increases at stock market prices above book value (of the fiscal year preceding the capital increase).

Such analysis of 10-year fundamental economic performance, by the way, is one of many criteria that asset manager Value Square takes into account to assess the quality and risks of all the publicly traded companies it monitors.

This fundamental analysis approach is independent of the evolution of stock prices, over which a manager has no control. The track record of managers is therefore better evaluated by the evolution of fundamental figures. Stock prices are strongly influenced in the short term by emotions such as fear and greed. In the long term, stock prices should follow or preferably exceed the evolution of the underlying fundamental, as is the case at Berkshire Hathaway.

Perhaps still emphasize that intrinsic value and book value are two different things. The intrinsic value of a share or of a company is equal to the discounting to today of the future free cash flows. But since everyone calculates intrinsic value differently, the evolution of the (easily calculated) book value is a good indication of the evolution of the intrinsic value.

Value Square awards prizes each year to the three highest scoring companies in this study and their management is rewarded with a gold, silver or bronze "Value Creation Award." The awards were presented at the "Value Creation Awards" event on Tuesday, May 20, 2025 at the Handelsbeurs on the Kouter in Ghent.

91 Belgian companies screened/ 86 analyzed

We screened a total of 91 Belgian listed companies (listed over the past 10 years). Of five companies, we could not measure the fundamental value creation due to a negative start and/or end value (Cumulex, Crescent, MDX Health, Nyrstar and Oxurion). Our analysis thus includes 86 Belgian listed companies.

Two Belgian companies disappeared from the stock exchange stage in 2024, Intervest Offices and SVK. American investment company TPG made a bid for logistics real estate player Intervest Offices. And the building materials group Scheerders Van Kerchove of Sint-Niklaas was taken over by Stones nv (an investment vehicle of the Antwerp business families Aertssen and Beerens).

Seven new companies were included in our study. Four companies went public in 2014: hygiene products manufacturer Ontex, biotech company Argenx, 3D printing company Materialise, as well as engineering company ABO Group. DEME (active in dredging and the offshore wind energy market) we included in the study (with the history of CFE before the demerger into CFE/DEME) notwithstanding that it did not get its own stock market life until 2022. Also included was Syensqo after the split with Solvay. Finally, Fluxys was also included.

VGP wins "GOLDEN Value Creation Award"

There seems to be no end to VGP's series of victories. The winner of the Value Creation Awards remains VGP of Van Geet Parks for the fourth year in a row. The family-owned company created 23.5% value per year from 2014-2024. VGP is a pan-European owner, manager and developer of logistics and semi-industrial real estate. Meanwhile, VGP has operations in 18 European countries, both directly and through 50:50 joint ventures.

Management led by CEO Jan Van Geet and CFO Piet Van Geet prides itself on VGP's contribution to the reindustrialization of Europe. Germany is by far the most important market in VGP's real estate portfolio, weighing in at 52%. VGP could therefore benefit in the next few years from Chancellor Friedrich Merz's ambitious €500 billion investment package to boost the German economy

VGP shares did not do well in 2024, like many other real estate companies, because the hoped-for interest rate reductions did not materialize (yet) and because the market is afraid that the engine of the European industry is not yet really catching on. Nevertheless, VGP was able to publish good results for fiscal year 2024, with record new rental income worth €91.6 million. Net profit tripled from 87.3 to 287.0 million euros. As a result, VGP's equity increased by 8.4% in 2024.

Over the past 10 years, investors in VGP cannot complain. Indeed, the stock market return (including net dividends) was 330%, implying an annual stock market return of 15.7%; this is significantly less than the fundamental value creation.

Melexis wins Silver Value Creation Award. It is now the sixth year in a row that Melexis has won second place. The technology company - half owned by Françoise Chombar, Rudi De Winter and Roland Duchatelet - has created 20.3% annual fundamental value over the past decade. Melexis designs, develops, tests and sells semiconductors for many markets, but the automotive is by far the most important. With increasing electrification and comfort and safety applications, there is a growing demand for automotive analog chips.

However, that electrification in 2024 was a lot slower than generally assumed. Again - just as during corona - the automotive semiconductor sector is weighed down by excessive inventories. These have to be eliminated first. The Melexis stock received a hefty stock market bailout in 2024, causing its annual stock market return over the past 10 years of only 7.1% to lag sharply behind its fundamental performance. Despite the lesser stock market performance, we cannot ignore the fact that Melexis has had a fantastic run over the past few years. Melexis is a dominant presence on the Value Creation Awards podium. Over the past 10 years, Melexis has either been in 1st place (3 times) or 2nd place (7 times). Congratulations to all Melexians !

One of the biggest success stories of the Belgian stock market is undoubtedly Lotus Bakeries. The Boone family's family cookie company, with Jan Boone as CEO, has been able to increase sales every year for the past 10 years. In 2014, turnover was around 350 million euros; in 2024 it exceeded 1.2 billion euros. Just over half (56%) of this comes from the Lotus speculoos cookie "Biscoff." Lotus Bakeries sold a whopping 11.5 billion cookies last year. The company's ambitions are not minus: "Biscoff" should become the third (today fifth) most important cookie brand in the world after Chips Ahoy and Oreo (both from Mondelez).

Lotus was also able to grow strongly in the United States in recent years thanks to a partnership with Delta Airlines but also through smart distribution in supermarkets and coffee chains. The management still sees a lot of potential in the U.S., witness a brand-new factory in North Carolina that makes Biscoff cookies for the North American market. In addition, the "healthy snacks" leg is also growing solidly with brands such as Nakd and Bear.

Fundamental Value Creation was 17.0% over the past 10 years, putting Lotus Bakeries in third place in our study and thus taking the Bronze Value Creation Award home to Lembeke.

Its stock market performance is even more remarkable with an annual stock market return of 28.0%, which gave the company an entry ticket to the BEL20 Index in 2024.

Results of the full study

Berkshire Hathaway achieved a total value creation of 260.9% over the period 2014-2024. This amounts to 13.7% per year (in euros). Warren Buffett and Value Square believe that in the long run, stock prices follow the fundamental value evolution. Over the past ten years, the stock price at Berkshire Hathaway rose at an average rate of 13.4% per year (in euros). So at Berkshire, the stock price perfectly follows the fundamentals.

This year, nine Belgian companies created more fundamental value than Berkshire Hathaway over the past decade: VGP, Melexis, Lotus Bakeries, ArgenX, Campine, Floridienne, WDP, Montea and EVS. They achieved an average fundamental value creation of 17.1% per year and their stock market return averaged 19.8% per year over the past 10 years. Jensen Group, like last year, ranks 10th (with a fundamental value creation of 13,2%).

The fundamental value creation of the 86 companies analyzed over the period 2014-2024 averaged 6.9% per year. At 4.8%, the average stock market performance lags behind fundamental value creation by a full 2%....

Top 10

Top 20

There are 3 new entrants into the Top 20 compared to last year: ArgenX (place 4), Financière de Tubize (place 12) and ABO Group (place 19). Bpost, Tessenderlo and Econocom drop out of the Top 20.

The top 20 Belgian listed companies that created the most value achieved a fundamental value increase of 14.3% per year over the period 2014-2024. The average stock market return of the top 20 is very close to fundamentals at 14.0%.

A notable new name in the top 10 is biotech pearl ArgenX. Argenx has had an exceptional run since its listing in 2014. The Ghent-based biotech company focuses on autoimmune diseases and developed a breakthrough therapy against the muscle disease myasthenia gravis with the drug Vyvgart. This was approved in the US in 2021 and grew rapidly into a blockbuster (a drug with sales of more than $1 billion). ArgenX enjoys a leading position in FcRn-targeted therapies (a breakthrough treatment class for autoimmune diseases that breaks down the body's harmful antibodies). Argenx excels in scientific research, clinical execution and smart strategic partnerships with Genmab and AbbVie, among others. Its stock market performance is staggering. ArgenX's stock price was 7.62 euros at the end of 2014 and rose to 600 euros at the end of 2024, this is times 78.7 or a stock market return of 54.7% per year. This stock market return is far ahead of the fundamental value creation of 16.8% per year. This is partly due to the adjustments we make for capital increases at prices above book value per share and partly because promising biotech companies have their potential far into the future. Over the period 2014-2024, ArgenX raised more than 5.3 billion euros in capital. ArgenX is likely to climb further up in our Value Creation Awards rankings in the coming years, at least if analysts' estimates hold true. ArgenX made a positive net income of USD 150 million for the first time in 2024, which will rise to USD 3.8 billion in 2030 according to analyst consensus!

Both ArgenX and UCB were high-flyers on the Belgian stock market last year. ArgenX rose 73.9%. UCB did even better with a return (including dividends) of 144.5%. In the wake of its subsidiary, the parent company above UCB, Financière de Tubize was able to rise 99.2%. Tubize achieved a fundamental value increase of 13.2% per year over the past 10 years. Its stock market return lagged behind subsidiary UCB (which posted a stock market return of 12.3% per year) by 10.8% per year, leaving Tubize's discount of around 50% stubbornly high.

ABO Group is another new name in our study. In 2014, ABO merged with the shell shell Thenergo. ABO specializes in soil testing, geotechnical engineering and environmental studies. The company is 90% owned by Frank De Palmenaer. He acquired quite a few companies in recent years, and ABO will exceed the 100 million euro revenue cap thanks in part to these acquisitions. The fundamental value creation over the period 2014-2024 is 10.4% per year. Due to the excessive share price at the time of the merger with Thenergo, the total stock market return over this period (-0.87% per year) is negative.

Investment Criteria for Value Creation

Warren Buffett, at 94 years old, after 60 years, still managed to grow Berkshire Hathaway by a solid 13.7% annually over the past decade. Granted, this percentage is on a downward trend (as it stands at 18.24% over 60 years), but that is not illogical due to the gigantic size of this investment vehicle. In Berkshire Hathaway's annual report, Buffett regularly describes the criteria that new investments must meet: consistent earnings power, capable and honest management as well as a good return on equity. A Value Square study of all Belgian listed stocks showed that there is a strong correlation between average return on equity (ROE) and fundamental value creation (FWC) over a 10-year period, as shown on the scatter diagram below. A correlation of more than 0.5 points can be termed strong.

A consistently high ROE is a strong indicator of long-term fundamental value creation in publicly traded companies. Both empirical research and practical examples support the idea that companies that efficiently deploy their equity realize superior returns for shareholders. As an investor, it therefore makes sense to look for companies with sustainably high returns on equity when selecting stocks, as this often indicates strong corporate fundamentals and the potential for long-term value creation.

Family Business

We label a business as a "family business" if an individual or family owns 20% of the share capital and at least 1 family member is on the management or board of directors. Of the 86 "calculated" companies, 66 are family businesses which is 77% of the number of companies studied. The family firms in our study achieved an average fundamental value creation of 6.96% per year over the past 10 years; non-family firms achieved a fundamental return of 6.66%. This is bizarrely not such a big difference; but this has a lot to do with the fact that a number of non-family companies have destroyed quasi all of their value (Nyrstar, Oxurion, MDX Health) and could not be calculated in this study; but where we can assume that that fundamental value creation approached the -100%.

Over the period 2014-2024, listed family companies achieved an average annual stock market return of 5.4% versus 3.0% for their non-family peers. Heavy stock market declines at the best-known non-family public companies Bpost and Proximus did not help. If we include the bruising Belgian stocks (see above), the average stock market return of Belgian non-family companies is even negative (-2.4%) over the past 10 years!

Rather, investors in publicly traded family-owned companies should be reassured that their interests are aligned with those of reference shareholders. According to several studies, family-managed companies outperform non-family-managed companies, thanks in part to their long-term focus and more conservative attitude toward debt. Our study reaffirms this statement.

Divider Democrats

An annual dividend is very important to many Belgian shareholders. A stable to increasing dividend is something many family, as well as small and large minority shareholders, appreciate. For the small shareholder, the net dividend yield is the most important thing. Normally, the term dividend democrats refers to companies that have been able to increase their dividends for 25 years or at least keep them stable. Here we look at the past 10 years.

The following Belgian companies were able to maintain or increase their net dividend every year for the past 10 years: Aliaxis, Barco, Brederode, Care Property Invest, Etex, Lotus Bakeries, Sofina, Texaf, UCB and WDP. If we abstract from an exceptional dividend at D'Ieteren in 2017 (paid out in 2018), the investment company of the eponymous family also belongs in the above list.

Aedifica changed its fiscal year in the 2019/2020 period to a calendar year, so it then had an extended fiscal year of 18 months; correcting for this, then, this healthcare real estate player is also a dividendaristocrat.

If we disregard the change in taxation (increase in withholding tax in two steps from 25% to 27% and to 30%), whereby the gross dividend is stable or increasing, then Ackermans & van Haaren, Ascencio, Elia, Fluxys, GIMV, Home Invest Belgium, Montea, Retail Estates, What's Cooking? and Financière de Tubize also appear as stable dividend payers. This year, real estate developer Atenor falls out of the list of stable dividend payers.

So last year there were 22 companies that increased their (gross) dividends 10 years in a row or at least kept them stable. Investing in companies with consistent dividend policies pays off. The average stock market return of these 22 companies over the past 10 years was 8.5%; this is 0.8% less than their fundamental value creation of 9.3%. Both stock market performance and fundamental value creation are significantly higher for the dividend democrats than the average of all 86 Belgian companies studied.

Investment companies

Holdings offer several advantages for (early stage) investors. First, holding companies tend to be good at capital allocation by strategically allocating their resources to profitable companies or sectors, creating long-term value for shareholders. Holdings often provide exposure to private markets, such as unlisted companies, that are otherwise difficult for retail investors to access. Due to their structure, holding companies typically have low management costs, especially compared to private equity vehicles, which has a positive effect on net returns. Many holding companies are also family anchored, which often leads to a long-term vision and stable entrepreneurship. This type of management is often associated with prudent financial management and sustainable value creation.

Brederode has a balanced portfolio of listed equities on the one hand and private equity on the other. The holding company is known for its family character and thoughtful investment strategy. Thanks to these qualities, Brederode created 12.5% annual returns over the past 10 years, earning it 13th place in the Value Creation Awards. Not for nothing has founder Pierre van der Mersch been called Belgium's Warren Buffett for decades. However, van der Mersch stopped "already" at the age of 89.

At Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Buffett - at age 94 - announced his retirement. He is quitting at the end of this year. It remains to be seen whether his successor Greg Abel can fill Buffett's big shoes. There is already a lot of work ahead, with an untapped cash mountain of as much as US$348 billion.

In addition to Brederode, the performance of the family holdings D'Ieteren, Ackermans & van Haaren and Sofina may also be seen. We also include Tessenderlo in the list of investment companies this year. Due to the great diversity of its activities (Agro, biovalorization, industrial solutions, machinery and technology (including Picanol weaving machines) and energy arm T-Power), we now also consider Tessenderlo as an investment company. As the second best performing holding company, Luc Tack lands just outside the top 20 of the overall ranking but in second place of the holding company ranking, with an excellent annual value creation of 10.2%. GBL and Quest for Growth dangle at the back of the list of Belgian investment companies.

The full study

The full list of the Value Creation study can be obtained by sending an email to info@value-square.be with in the subject line "List Value Creation Awards 2014-2024.

This study was conducted under the responsibility of Patrick Millecam, Partner and Senior Portfolio Manager at Value Square. He received the support of Robbe Debaene, intern and Finance & Risk Management student - Master Commercial Sciences, Ghent University.