Quarterly Letter 31/03/2026
Dear co-investors,
We are writing this letter on Tuesday, April 7, and more than usual, we feel the need to mention the exact date. After all, every day, the situation can completely change, especially when it comes to geopolitical matters.
Middle East
The first two months of the new year brought very good returns to our portfolios. They were largely wiped out by the war in the Middle East in March. The conflict is disrupting logistics supply chains, both by sea and in the air. In addition, oil and gas prices have risen sharply in a few weeks.
All of this raised inflation expectations, resulting in rising interest rates. A cocktail to which the stock markets reacted negatively in the short term. However, previous crises also show that the markets usually recover after a few weeks or months, partly because companies are often very resilient and adapt.
A.I
In addition, the revolution in artificial intelligence is also having an increasing impact on the entire economy. Not only the generative AI systems, digital assistants and chatbots, and in their support, data center builders, semiconductor and computer chip manufacturers and energy suppliers, but really almost all sectors are being changed to a greater or lesser extent by AI.
Keep calm and carry on
As always, we remain confident in the resilience and ingenuity of our companies to deal with challenges. Companies with a sufficiently strong market position will certainly pass on any higher costs to their customers. In this way, stocks offer good protection against inflation in the slightly longer term.
And as mentioned at our annual Investor Meeting on March 21, we are also partly targeting the Halo trade: Heavy Assets, Low Obsolescence. These are companies with heavy or expensive installations and machines that are not rapidly aging. Typically, they will be much less impacted by AI.
The uncertainty can persist for quite some time and there are all kinds of scenarios that could turn out to be very positive or very negative in the coming weeks and months. The best answer to that is to always be heavily invested in the markets, to keep paying attention to healthy valuations (Value!) and putting cash resources to work on a regular basis.
KBC Securities Services digital portal
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Agenda
As you know, Value Square regularly organises seminars and information sessions on various topics and for various target groups.
- April 21: Bekaert company visit — unfortunately full
- April 28: Start2Invest Balance Reading session — for young clients and children of slightly older clients — unfortunately also full
- May 12: Start2Invest Beginners session - for young clients and children of slightly older clients
For other initiatives, you will receive another invitation.
New colleague
We welcome Yves Van Laecke to Value Square. In recent years, he has been commercial director for Belgium at a medium-sized bank. Together with Pascal Cornelis, Yves will manage the Relationship Management team.
We look forward to meeting you at one of these events or in a personal conversation.
In the meantime, be sure to stay up to date by following us via our LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/value-square/.
Best regards,
Pascal Cornelis - Yves Van Laecke - Kris Hermie - Patrick Millecam - Cynthia Peeters - Tibo Dewispelaere - Astrid Verlot - Pauline Verhelst - Dieter Engels - Thomas Maes - Jens De Maeseneire - Koen Van de Vyver - Jens Verbrugge - Petrick Step - Wouter Verlinden - Wim Descamps - Emiel Beirens - Koen HoffMan
