Financial situation Royal Dutch Mint

[eurocoin]

According to several sources, the Royal Dutch Mint will cease to exist and the building will be sold to a real estate agent. I have been unable to get this story verified.

More information about the future of the mint will be released soon.

[chrisild]

Would be sad to see the KNM "go". But if they were unable to find an external investor ... Please keep us posted, Niels!

Christian

[eurocoin]

Royal Dutch Mint has earlier today been sold to a Belgian investor (Groep Heylen). Groep Heylen already owns several minting companies like Mauquoy Token Company. There were 20 interested parties of which 10 have submitted a bid.The Ministry of Finance has sold the Royal Dutch Mint building to a real estate agent. For now the production will remain at the current building but in the long term the mint is going to move to a different building in the neighborhood of Utrecht. The Dutch eurocoins will be minted at the Royal Dutch Mint until the end of 2019, afterwards this will be put up for tender. From today on Royal Dutch Mint is allowed to issue 4 collectors coins per year whereas this first was 2.

[Bimat]

Dutch mint is sold to Belgian industrial group

November 22, 2016

The royal Dutch mint KNM has been sold to a Belgian industrial group for €3.6m. The deal will generate €2.4m for the treasury after the mint's debts have been paid.

The buyer is Belgium's Groep Heylen. It has pledged to keep production in the Netherlands but will need to find a new location as the current building in Utrecht has also been sold. The mint has a workforce of 90.

The government said in April it planned to sell off the mint, which has been based in Utrecht since 1567. The mint produces coins for the Netherlands and a number of foreign countries.

Groep Heylen says the Dutch mint fits in well with its portfolio, which includes Belgian firms Mauquoy Token Company, National Tokens and Royal Blanking International. These firms all produce metal tokens and medals.

Source: Dutch News

[Enlil]

What about the building, what protection does it have?

[eurocoin]

Almost half of the staff of the Royal Dutch Mint has been fired over the last year (from 160 to 85). Groep Heylen wanted to leave the building because it does not consider it to be fit for coin production (which is in fact true). Royal Dutch Mint is going to mint more coins for South America, Africa and Asia because these are growing markets. Groep Heylen also wants to win the tender for the production of Belgian eurocoins. The company was sold for 3.6 million euros. The building was sold for 11.1 million euros.

What about the building, what protection does it have?

What do you mean?

[chrisild]

If the question about protection refers to whether a new owner could tear the building down, the answer is No. The Muntgebouw is a protected historic monument.

Christian

[eurocoin]

Some new details have now emerged. Less than 1% of the checked coins were found to be faulty. After the Dutch mint was informed that the batch was rejected they stored it in a warehouse in Chile. At first the faulty coins were picked out by hand but as there were way too many coins to be checked, the Royal Dutch Mint ordered a Dutch company to build a machine that was able to detect the faulty coins. The machine, which had to be built from scratch, was finished within 3,5 weeks. For 7 months they ran coins through the machine (which processed 10 coins/second). A lot of time was lost because of the unqualified (I would also call them retarded) staff that was available in Chile to run the machine.

[chrisild]

Hmm, now it would be even more interesting to learn about who profited from the failed deal.

Christian

[Figleaf]

The Chilean mint workers who wanted the job for themselves, I guess.

Peter

[eurocoin]

AND the Chilean company that delivered the retarded employees who had to sift through the coins in the warehouse to find the faulty ones. They charged an enormously high amount of money for that. RDM didn't have much choice other than to do business with them anyway because the fines they would get from the Chilean government because of breach of contract if they didn't deliver in time were sky high too.

AND Groep Heylen who really got a bargain, I think.

[eurocoin]

Almost 6 months after the take-over I start to doubt if it really was a good decision to keep the mint opened. Since the acquisition by Groep Heylen, they have not received any new major orders. On the contrary, they have only lost clients (e.g. Malta). This is partially caused by the fact that they, due to the take-over, are no longer able to bid on many tenders as many central banks demand the mint to be governmentially owned for at least 51%. This includes Bangladesh which for years was a major client of the Royal Dutch Mint.

After the take-over Groep Heylen announced that they want to expand the Mint's business in South America, Africa and Asia. That is of course much more easily said then done. South America and Asia are highly competitive markets and in both continents very high standards are expected from the mints and again it is far from uncommon there to have rules that specify that only government-owned mints can bid on the tenders.

Nothing has so far happened with Royal Dutch Mint's plans to start a joint venture with International Quidding Sarl (a producer of luxuruous bottle caps) based in Luxembourg. Although the only way for mints to remain in existence is diversification, I highly doubt this is the right company to do so. Shifty is the right word I think.

[eurocoin]

Royal Dutch Mint will next year move to a smaller building. It has earlier mentioned it will stay in Utrecht.

[Figleaf]

That would leave the government with an empty shell that once housed two of their services: the mint and the Geldmuseum. Everybody loses.

Peter

[chrisild]

Not really. As for who owns the building, see this story (from about a year ago):
https://www.rtlz.nl/algemeen/binnenland/gebouw-de-munt-in-utrecht-voor-111-miljoen-euro-verkocht

Seems that the mint building is already used as an event location. So there may in the future be more such activities ...

Christian