ARCO Group is a Belgian

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...

holding group, and part of the

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

workers organisation Beweging.net formerly known as ACW. The group has more than 900,000 shareholders and a

capital Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

of 4.5 billion

euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

. ''Arcofin'' invests in the financial sector and ''Auxipar'' mainly invests in basic and utility service sectors (Elia, SPGE, Belgacom,

Telenet Telenet was an American commercial packet-switched network which went into service in 1975. It was the first FCC-licensed public data network in the United States. Various commercial and government interests paid monthly fees for dedicated lin ...

, GIMV), and real estate (Retail Estates). In addition the group participates in the cooperative organisations ''Hefboom'' and ''Crédal'' and the

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

organisations ''Procura'' and ''Syneco''. Francine Swiggers is Chairman of the Management Board of the ARCO Group, she succeeded Rik Branson.

History

In 1935 the ''Landelijk Verbond van Christelijke Coöperaties'' (LVCC) (E: Rural League of Christian Cooperations) was established. The LVCC later became shareholder of Catholic organisations such as the ''Welvaart'' (E: Prosperity) grouping of cooperative shops, the ''BAC-Centrale Depositokas'' and the ''Antwerpse Volksspaarkas'', ''De Volksverzekering'' and the Centre for insurance of risks of Christian working-class families In 1945 the LVCC, together with the ''verbondelijke coöperatieve vennootschappen'' is embedded within the ACW. LVCC will acquire shares in publishing, printing, and travel companies. In 1974, the investment company ''Auxipar'' is established and in 1983 ''Coplus'' (forerunner of Arcoplus). In 1990 the LVCC is restructured and renamed ''Arcofin CV''. As a result of the reorganisation, 28 cooperative corporations are merged and the resulting group is named ''ARCO Group''. In 1997, ARCO Group prepares for the takeover of Paribas (Belgium,

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

) by BACOB. In 1999 the financial and insurance activities are group in the ''Artesia Banking Corporation'' and in 2001 Arcofin gives its shares in ''Artesia Banking Corporation'' to

Dexia Dexia N.V./S.A., or the Dexia Group, is a Franco-Belgian financial institution formed in 1996. At its peak in 2010, it had about 35,200 members of staff and a core shareholders' equity of €19.2 billion. In 2008, the bank entered severe ...

in return for shares of Dexia. In 2010 it suffered substantial losses as a result of a restructuring and part nationalisation of Dexia. In 2016, the Belgian jurist and author, Drieu Godefridi, published an opinion on the website of the magazine Le Vif in which he considered that the compensation of ARCO cooperators for an amount of 600 million euros by the Belgian State is crony capitalism. In fact, the Leterme government, whose Prime Minister was Yves Leterme in the CD&V-MR-PS-cdH-Open VLD coalition, extended the bank guarantee of 100,000 euros to ARCO's 780,000 cooperators, mostly Flemish, following the failure of the Belgian bank Dexia, of which ARCO was one of the main shareholders and also the financial arm of the Algemeen Christelijk Werknemersverbond (Christian Workers' Movement in Flanders) linked to the political party CD&V.

References

Sources

External links

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ARCO Group
i
ODIS - Online Database for Intermediary Structures

Archives of ARCO Group
i
ODIS - Online Database for Intermediary Structures
Financial services companies of Belgium {{Belgium-company-stub

History

See also

References

Sources

External links