AMSTERDAM – Investors sold Intertrust on Thursday after the trust and advice office in Amsterdam announced disappointing figures. Sales fell slightly, partly due to uncertainty in the Dutch market and a sharp fall in the US dollar.

Midkapper Intertrust INTER € 15.98-7.09% went down almost 9% in the morning hours. The fact that the company maintains the growth forecast for this year (underlying revenue + 3%) while the underlying turnover grew by 2.6%, apparently did not reassure investors.

‘Challenging circumstances’

The pain is mainly in the Dutch branch, accounting for almost a quarter of sales, and in the Cayman Islands. Top woman Stephanie Miller, who took office at the company this year, spoke in the press release of ‘challenging circumstances’ in the Netherlands. Turnover shrank slightly, by 0.6% to almost € 29 million.

This is mainly because customers of Intertrust wait until the Dutch government makes it clearer about the business climate and until then no new services from the trust office. Undersecretary Menno Snel of Finances wants to get rid of letterbox companies that are based in the Netherlands for tax reasons, but has not yet formulated a precise definition of the letterbox company. In fact, Intertrust is big in setting up and managing those companies.

In addition, the government will introduce a withholding tax on dividend, interest and royalty payments to tax havens. The rate of that charge is also not fixed.

Personnel files in order

The workforce is back in order in the Netherlands, says a spokesman. Last year, the Amsterdam branch was still running empty, partly due to disappointment about bonuses. “At the end of the third quarter we have hired a lot of people who are now working on it. That is where we begin to see the effects,” says the information officer.

The turnover of the branch containing both the United States and Curaçao and the Cayman Islands decreased by more than 16%. That was largely due to the low US dollar. Without that currency effect, turnover fell by 3.5%. “The Cayman Islands are a very competitive market,” says a spokesman. Intertrust has lost some of its market share there.

Spotlight in Luxembourg

The spotlight within the company is the Luxembourg branch, which is mainly active in managing and setting up funds for private equity, real estate and hedge funds. Sales there increased by more than 9% to € 26.3 million.

The profit before tax of the entire group decreased slightly, by 1.9% to € 45.3 million. In the coming months, Miller will continue to work on the strategy for the coming years. Investors will be informed about this after the summer.

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