Last autumn D'Ieteren Group [Euronext Brussels:DIE] announced an extraordinary €74 per share special dividend, equivalent to 39% of the company’s market cap at the time.
Selling pressure from tax-sensitive investors – who faced Belgian Withholding Tax rates of up to 30% – pushed the shares down from €226 to a low of €188. It was seen as a buying opportunity for some fund managers who still favour the stock, but the shares have gone on to drop even further since.
High insurance costs hit "crown jewel" Belron
D'Ieteren Group is a Belgian-based vehicle distributor and provider of parts, working with many brand name manufacturers like Porsche, Bentley, Lamborghini and Bugatti. The D'Ieteren share price is down just over 12-13% in the last year or so. Much of that decline has happened quite recently. D'Ieteren shares have given up a lot of ground since September, when they were trading at EUR 220. They closed at around EUR 156 on Friday.
"The last year has seen a relatively difficult operating environment for Belron, the crown jewel asset that repairs and replaces vehicle glass, which accounts for 68% of NAV," said the managers of the AVI Global Trust, which holds shares in D'Ieteren. "Higher insurance premiums have seen customer propensity to repair decline, and the insured market (to which Belron are more exposed than peers) is ceding share to the cash market."
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