Listed European retail property firm Vastned announced on Wednesday that its CEO Taco de Groot will step down from his post in December 2020, two months before the company is due to unveil a new corporate strategy.
Vastned, which over the past decade has transformed into a high-street property investor under De Groot's leadership, said that the Covid-19 outbreak has ‘accelerated the developments in the retail landscape’. These developments are taking the company into a new phase, making this 'a logical time' for De Groot to take this step.
‘With the strategy update, Vastned is entering a new phase in its development,’ commented De Groot, who has led the company for the past nine years and is stepping down three years ahead of the end of his official tenure. ‘Partially as a result of the views of a major shareholder, I have taken the initiative towards the Supervisory Board to discuss my position. I am convinced that this is in the interests of the continuity of the company and of all its stakeholders.’
The major shareholder in question is Aat van Herk, who holds around 25% of Vastned shares and who has been openly critical of what he views as Vastned's overly high operating costs in relation to its weak profitability. Partly under pressure from Van Herk, Vastned's shareholders did not 'discharge' the management board from liability for their services in 2019, as is standard practice under Dutch corporate law at AGMs. Last month, Van Herk called on the entire management board of Vastned to resign.
Like other retail groups, Vastned has been badly bruised by the coronavirus pandemic. The company, which has a portfolio of around €1.6 bn focused mainly on high street retail in major European cities, posted a loss of €21.1 mln in the first half of 2020, compared with a profit of €8.4 mln a year earlier. Devaluations were largely to blame for the losses.
The supervisory board said it will now start a search for a suitable successor. Reinier Walta, currently Vastned's CFO, will act as interim CEO until a replacement is appointed.
Marc van Gelder, chairman of the supervisory board, said: ‘Under Taco's leadership, Vastned has rolled out the high street strategy step by step, and thus transformed Vastned into a retail property fund focusing on the best properties in historic city centres of some of the best-loved European cities. This transformation concerned both the portfolio and the organisation, including the company's financial reporting and processes. Operating in a challenging retail market, Vastned has shown strong performance, also during the corona crisis, with a high occupancy rate and a stable valuation of the property portfolio. Taco has been instrumental in achieving this. We are deeply grateful to him for it.’