Kaspar Huijsman of BinckBank Spain & Portugal keeps a close eye on all (international) developments. Not only because he wants to provide his customers with the right information but because he is also an investor himself.
In the first weeks, investors panicked because the stock markets plummeted and the BinckBank team in Marbella worked 12-hour days answering phone calls from clients. Then came the people who see opportunities on the stock market and want to start investing.
“Here and there you heard people criticising investors that they were only interested in their personal gain. But let’s be honest: everyone who invests (be it money, time or energy) hopes to get something in return. Many of our clients invest money that they do not immediately need in the stock market so they can realise a dream later in life.
“But also don’t forget that as long as people continue to invest money in company shares, those companies also continue to hold value. Although they may have less or no production at the moment, investors continue to have confidence in the future of that company. How else do you explain that there is still plenty of trading in the shares of large airlines? Those planes are all grounded. Prices are now lower, but investors think that they will rise again,” said Kaspar.
Trading on the stock market continues as usual, with the gains and losses as always. But what about the actual economy and what people are experiencing in their daily lives? There seem to be only losses for the time being. Kaspar thinks the near future will be very hard, but it will flourish again with new and fresh ideas. According to him, the biggest problem has to do with the longer term. “An enormous amount of money has been spent to contain the consequences of this sanitary crisis as much as possible. Money that has to be repaid and you have to come up with good solutions. We will see if that actually happens. Otherwise we will continue to stumble from crisis to crisis. ”
Kaspar Huijsman is not really optimistic about the Portuguese economy “With a few exceptions, Portugal is a country of small businesses. Entrepreneurs know there are risks when doing business, but this kind of crisis wasn’t in anybody’s business calculations. The losses are enormous, and I fear that many will not overcome them” says Kaspar. According to him it makes a difference that the Algarve is an area where people are used to short and violent economic cycles. “When things go well, many people come and when things go bad, they leave. But there are always people who want to come here. Portugal has an advantage as a European country that it is emotionally a safe destination. As soon as people are allowed to travel again and it is clear that measures have been taken, planes full of visitors will arrive here again.”