Ackermans & van Haaren N.V. (often abbreviated as AvH) is a Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 holding company

Holding company

A holding company is a company or firm that owns other companies' outstanding stock. It usually refers to a company which does not produce goods or services itself; rather, its purpose is to own shares of other companies. Holding companies allow the reduction of risk for the owners and can allow...

. Through its subsidiaries, the company is active in four key sectors: dredging and construction

Construction

In the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of human multitasking...

, real estate

Real estate

In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...

, financial services

Financial services

Financial services refer to services provided by the finance industry. The finance industry encompasses a broad range of organizations that deal with the management of money. Among these organizations are credit unions, banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, consumer finance companies,...

, and private equity

Private equity

Private equity, in finance, is an asset class consisting of equity securities in operating companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange....

. Ackermans & van Haaren is listed on Euronext Brussels, where it is part of the BEL20

BEL20

The BEL20 is the benchmark stock market index of Euronext Brussels. In general, the index consists of a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 20 companies traded at the Brussels Stock Exchange. Since 20 June 2011, the BEL20 has contained 20 listings.-Rules:...

 share index.

History

The company was founded in 1880 as a dredging company. Although Ackermans & van Haaren is now a holding company, it is still active in the dredging sector through its 50% subsidiary DEME

DEME

Dredging, Environmental and Marine Engineering NV is an international group of specialised companies in the field of capital and maintenance dredging, land reclamation, port infrastructure development, offshore related services for the oil & gas industry, farshore windfarm installation,...

http://www.deme.be/.