Shareholders’ value from real estate

In the Bank’s balance sheet, the depreciation and amortisation accounts for fixed assets are given in item 13.2 on the liabilities side: the 'reserve fund’. This accounting practice enables the Bank to invest funds amounting to the countervalue of the amortisation accounts in the statutory portfolio, which is the portfolio that forms the counterpart of the reserve fund and the available reserve. In accordance with the Bank’s reserve and dividend policy, 50 % of the proceeds from the statutory portfolio are put into the reserves and 50 % is paid out as a dividend.

In this way, the Bank’s real estate generates value for the shareholders.

Whenever property is sold, the reserve and dividend policy stipulates that any non-reinvested net proceeds from the sale are treated in the same way as yields from the statutory portfolio. In other words, 50 % of the surplus proceeds from the sale go into the reserves and the remaining 50 % is paid out in dividends.

Also in the event of property sales, shareholders thus benefit from returns on the Bank’s real estate.

The sale of the bank building in Antwerp resulted in net capital gains of € 6.4 million for the year 2014, which gave rise to a supplementary dividend payment of € 5.73 gross per share.