Foreign shareholders have moved in on a number of Holland’s most important companies. Should their influence on national issues such as employment be curbed? asks the Volkskrant.

The paper found that a number of companies that are regarded as uniquely Dutch by the Dutch population are almost entirely in foreign hands. Telecommunications company KPN has 92 percent foreign shareholders, followed by supermarket giant Ahold with 88 and electronics company Philips with 80.
This must have an impact on the way these companies operate.
Who are these foreign investors? The answer is easy as abc. They are American asset management companies AllianceBernstein, Blackrock and Capital and between them they own most of the shares. They keep a low profile and like to keep it that way.
They pull the strings from behind the scenes using their enormous financial clout. Blackrock alone manages 3,000 bn dollar making it the largest asset manager in the world.
Is this a dangerous development? The answer to that is slightly more complicated. Starting in the Kok years, between 1994 and 2002, the Netherlands has increasingly opened up its companies to foreign influences.
The influx of capital would lead to more investment and growth. And some foreign scrutiny was thought to be beneficial shaking up a management which had been hiding behind a screen of protectionist constructions. The spirit of the times meant shareholder interest came very much top of the list.
But the last ten years have made clear that too much emphasis on shareholder interest can lead to complications as the ABN Amro and Stork takeover battles have shown. The credit crisis has also brought into question shareholder dominance and the focus on short term profit.
Financial institutions developed a blind spot for the risks involved when dealing with very profitable products.
Parliament recognised the need to curb the power of share holders in favour of employees and clients. Small legal steps in that direction have been made recently. Under a new code aggressive shareholders can be held at bay for a cooling down period of 180 days. It is a good start.
A return to the old protectionist screen is not a good idea- the Netherlands must not shield its companies from foreign influence. It would be a useless exercise seeing how big that influence is already.
But an exaggerated emphasis on what shareholders want makes for an unbalanced situation. The danger is that big companies will not take into account specifically Dutch interests, especially where employment is concerned.
The balance must be brought back between the interests of shareholders, clients and employees. There is no need for the Netherlands to come at the top of the neo liberal class any longer.
This is an unofficial translation