Jens Vollmar has not been in office as CEO of $IMPN (+1,66 %) but still has ambitious goals for the construction group.

16.01.2026 16:00

300 days: that's how long Jens Vollmar will soon have been CEO of Implenia. "He has consistently pursued the strategy of his predecessor André Wyss since taking office at the beginning of April 2025 and accelerated it in parts," says Anja Felder, Senior Financial Analyst at St.Galler Kantonalbank (SGKB), summarizing his time in office so far.

Implenia impressed the market with its figures for the first half of 2025, in which it increased its operating profit and the corresponding margin. "The market was pleased with this development, which should have further strengthened investors' confidence in Jens Vollmar as the new CEO."

After 289 days, the CEO has now made a bold statement that should give investors further hope. "We can become twice as big!" said Vollmar at Immo26, the Swiss real estate fair for investors, on Wednesday. He gave this answer to the question "What do you want to achieve with Implenia?" in a "question fire" at the end of a 25-minute talk, i.e. short questions, quick answers.

Of course, such a statement should be treated with caution if no time horizon and no specific key figures are mentioned. However, he was probably referring to key figures that measure company growth - i.e. turnover, profit, market share or company size. The 41-year-old has been with Implenia for more than 10 years and, according to Swiss law, still has 24 years of employment ahead of him - plenty of time to achieve his ambitious goal.

The CEO's statement is not entirely far-fetched. After all, the share price has doubled since he took office from CHF 40.80 to CHF 82 in January - so the doubling target has already been achieved. In addition, the prospects for business activities are also good. In Switzerland in particular, falling interest rates are increasing the willingness to invest in the real estate market, and in Germany the 500 billion euro economic stimulus package is likely to have a positive effect.

"The decisive factor will now be the extent to which the German infrastructure program is actually reflected in future figures. We assume that noticeable effects will not be visible until 2027 at the earliest," emphasizes the SGKB expert. It is also crucial that the planned investments are actually implemented and that Implenia can successfully assert itself against the competition. The clear focus on profitable growth is the right strategic path.

On Thursday, the Group announced new orders in Germany and Norway worth 350 million euros. When the half-year figures were published, the order backlog had already grown by 9.8 percent to CHF 7.8 billion. Anja Felder of SGKB is optimistic: "In our view, Implenia will be able to further increase its operating profit in the future and achieve its medium-term target of a margin of over 4.5 percent." Expectations of Implenia and its CEO Jens Vollmar are correspondingly high.

Strong project pipeline

Prior to the Q&A, Vollmar was asked in more detail about his first few months as CEO. One of his highlights was the construction group's many exciting and varied projects, especially infrastructure projects. "Under Jens Vollmar, Implenia has succeeded in winning major projects, which should have a positive impact on order intake and the visibility of future sales," emphasizes Felder.

In particular, the German-born company boss is probably referring to the rail project between Zurich and Winterthur. The federal government is planning a double-track line through the Brüttener Tunnel as well as the expansion of the Dietlikon, Bassersdorf, Wallisellen and Winterthur Töss railroad stations.

At Immo26, the new CEO also spoke of the merger of the divisions from four to three as a highlight. According to him, this was probably relatively "simple". The fact that the majority of the companies were individual contributed to a smooth transition, as Vollmar emphasizes.

The Real Estate division and the Buildings division were combined to form the Buildings unit. In addition, there is the Civil Engineering division and the new Service Solutions division, which includes the real estate service provider Wincasa, for example.

With regard to the low margins in the construction business, Jens Vollmar replied: "The industry suffers structurally from the fact that construction companies can often only differentiate themselves through price. We deliberately don't want to go down this route." Instead, Implenia is focusing on greater differentiation through selected projects in specialized areas.

Aisha Gutknecht has been working as an editor for cash.ch since July 2024.

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Basically, I see myself as a buy and hold investor. Nevertheless, I occasionally take profits so as not to succumb to greed.

At the moment, I have decided to sell part of my portfolio and realized profits.

Do you also realize profits from time to time or do you stick strictly to your long-term strategy?

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Implenia with new orders

The construction group Implenia has landed various contracts in Switzerland. For example, Implenia is to build a new hotel in the canton of Uri for Samih Sawiris' Andermatt Swiss Alps AG.Implenia will build a Hotel & Residences in Andermatt as total contractor, the Group announced on Tuesday. The new building is part of the overall Andermatt Reuss development. Construction is scheduled to start in spring 2025 and be completed in November 2027.

Together with other orders from Switzerland, the order volume for the Buildings division amounts to more than 200 million Swiss francs, it added. Implenia will build residential developments in Köniz and Zug, school buildings in Binningen and Zug and the community center in Pratteln. These orders will be completed by autumn 2025.

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Once again, here is an update: With a heavy heart, I had to part with the only Swiss stock in the portfolio: The talk is of Implenia $IMPN (+1,66 %)

Have you already pulled the emergency brake on an investment?

If so, which one was it and why?

As always, you can find the original blog post including a small table & pictures here:

https://www.valueinvestments.ch/vermoegensverwaltung-value-und-momentum-september-2023

And the full text content I post directly here on Getquin to read:

Portfolio sales and purchases

Shortly after the last rebalancing, I had to pull the emergency brake on one stock: Implenia was showing one warning sign after another, especially regarding qualitative metrics on profitability, financing and efficiency. Therefore, I decided to sell the shares of Implenia - on August 28, 2023 - after less than one year.

When I bought in October 2022, the world looked even better for Implenia. During the current year, however, the situation deteriorated visibly. So, with a heavy heart, I had to part with the only Swiss stock in the portfolio. At least I managed to do so at a price of CHF 38.31. This means that I still managed to get out with a price gain of 18.2%. The dividend brought in another 1.2%, which resulted in a plus of about 19.4% - that consoled me a bit about the pain of separation.

Excitingly, on August 30, 2023 - two days after my exit - the news came out: "Implenia-Grossaktionär Norbert Ketterer platziert 1.3 Millionen Aktien". This corresponded to 6.9% of the outstanding share capital. Now I truly have no clairvoyant abilities, but I am glad today that I dared to exit beforehand. Often one is too late when such news comes out. If I had waited, the shares would be today at CHF 30.05 or about 21.6% down compared to my sell price and compared to the entry price of October 2022 it would still be 7.3% down instead of 18.2% up. Even the 1.2% dividend yield would not have helped much.

On the other hand, the Australian company Whitehaven was allowed to keep its place in the portfolio during the annual review - one could almost say: Some go too early, others stay longer than expected.

The second company I sold was Genie Energy, which saw a nice gain of 49.1%. price gain of 49.1%. Even nicer is that this price gain is tax free - at least for investors with tax liability in Switzerland. Genie Energy has not become outrageously expensive, but there are companies that now have stronger momentum and also score better on quality criteria. One such company is Trican Well Services from Canada: it's a company that sells the shovels and picks used during the gold rush. Only this time, it's black liquid gold and natural gas. In short, Trican Well Services sells specialized equipment and technology for use in oil and gas drilling. A company profile on the company can be found below.

News and developments on the stock market

Uncertainty was stronger in August than it is today. In general, the markets seem to be somewhat directionless at the moment. It's not getting boring, though, because the Americans are once again arguing about their budget - or rather about whether the debt ceiling should be raised, and if so, by how much. For now, there is no government shutdown: Congress bought itself another 45 days yesterday - just hours before the deadline. So far, there have already been ten government shutdowns in the US. The longest shutdown lasted 35 days from December 22, 2018 to January 25, 2019, when Donald Trump tried to push through funding for his "big, beautiful wall" on the border with Mexico.

The U.S. was already paying an incredible $475 billion in interest in 2022. The debt currently stands at over $33 trillion. That's a number with 12 zeros: 33,000,000,000,000. Let someone say that a zero is worth nothing - it always depends on where it is. In other words, that's 99,000 US dollars in debt per person in the USA. And who lent them all that money? All of us to a large extent: Our AHV and pension fund money is to a considerable extent in US bonds.

So it remains exciting and the only thing that is certain is uncertainty. Nevertheless, I feel comfortable with a diversified portfolio. The ups and downs of stock prices are part of it, just like a ship that floats on the waves of the Atlantic.

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Implenia AG was formed in 2006 from a merger between Batigroup from Basel and Zschokke Holding from Geneva. It has only had its new headquarters in Glattpark near Opfikon in Switzerland since September 2021.

Implenia is a construction and real estate services company operating primarily in Switzerland and Europe. It is divided into four business divisions:

Real Estate

Building construction

Civil Engineering

Specialties

In these segments, it offers its services in the areas of road construction, tunnel construction, excavations, retaining structures, noise barriers, civil engineering and infrastructure maintenance. It also offers real estate services such as real estate development and management, real estate investments, building construction, project management, pollutant remediation, general and total contracting, building technology, real estate consulting and general planning. Implenia Ltd's range of specialist construction services extends from planning and construction in prestressing and geotechnical engineering, construction logistics and timber construction to mechanical and electrical engineering.

Here again an update on the current situation. There have been some changes in the portfolio. A clear table with the current portfolio can be found here:

https://www.valueinvestments.ch/portfolio-vermögensverwaltung

Everything that doesn't need a table I'll post directly here at getquin and hope you enjoy reading:

The weather on the stock market has not really brightened up yet. Paradoxically one can observe that actually positive news lead to further crashes on the stock market: For example, the news that the unemployment figures in the U.S. have reached a low. Fewer unemployed, is supposed to be bad? That sounds almost like Conspiracy theory - but it is not. Fewer unemployed are of course nothing bad, but rather the shortage of labor.

The sober logic behind this is that if there is a shortage on the labor market wages rise sharply. That would actually be good news again - if it weren't for the "little" problem with high inflation: higher wages allow higher prices because people can buy and afford more. The result is that the inflation spiral continues to spin.

And what does that have to do with the stock market?

But why should that be bad for the stock market? The problem is that high inflation calls the national bank into action. National banks are supposed to be responsible for price stability price stability. How do they do that when inflation is high? They raise interest rates. This can ensure that people prefer to save and consumers spend less money. Because not only the interest on savings accounts rises again, but also the interest on debts, such as Lombard loans, consumer loans, leasing and mortgages. In this way, money is withdrawn from the market. This is to ensure that money itself remains valuable due to scarcity and does not constantly continue to lose value, as is the case with inflation.

Prices stabilize when inflation declines. They may even fall if inflation turns into deflation. Exactly the same is true for stocks or other assets. When more money is in circulation, the prices of securities tend to rise. Currently, we are seeing the reverse: Money is being withdrawn from the market, causing prices on the stock market to fall. Energy prices, on the other hand, are rising, but this has nothing to do with monetary policy. monetary policy This has nothing to do with the monetary policy of the national banks, but rather with a shortage of supply in the face of unchanged demand.

In addition, it is not the present but the future that is traded on the stock market. future is traded but the future. This means that the mere expectation of a strong of a sharp rise in interest rates by the by the national banks is enough to drive stock market prices down.

This is exactly what has just happened in the USA: Low unemployment figures indicate a shortage in the labor market, causing wages rise. This increases the demand for goods and services, which in turn causes prices to rise, because these are also a scarce commodity. This increases inflation and threatens price stability. price stability is in danger. The SNB fights this with higher interest rates, which takes money out of the market. This, in turn, is not good for stock market prices.

Asset management - Value & Momentum worldwide

Also in my sample portfolio with the Value und Momentum Strategie this could be observed: The average return per year has risen again to 13.4 % (from +15.3 %). As the price chart above shows: We've been lower, too. But whether this is already the bottom can only be known by a soothsayer - unfortunately I am not one and prefer to stick to the facts of the present. The average return is actually quite good, although it is fair to say that the Recovery after the Corona low has made the biggest contribution. If anything, 2022 has done the opposite, normalizing a phenomenal return of over 30% in some cases. This is also part of investing and provides some Humility.

The air is getting thinner and thinner: At the time of rebalancing in October, only 15 companies were still suitable for investment. Of these, eight are already in the portfolio. So there are 7 companies left, and one of them only has strong momentum because it is being bought out. After this takeover news, the share price went sideways again - so not a valid candidate for an investment either.

Conclusion: The selection was limited to only 6 companies worldwide. I am still waiting for the day when we do not buy a new company - even that would not be the end of the world. In difficult times some cash It is even helpful to hold some cash in difficult times: When the situation improves, you can use it even more.

Rebalancing Value and Momentum

Sold this month was the absolute draught horse in the portfolio: New Hope Corporation with incredible + 142.6 % profit! 131.8 % of this are pure price gains - for investors in Switzerland even tax free. Another 10.8 % are due to the distribution of dividends. Why is such a good company being removed from the portfolio at all? The momentum is intact and the share price has risen sharply. Well, due to the strong increase, the company is no longer valued quite as favorably compared to others. Therefore, it is consistently exchanged for companies that are cheaper to buy and have even more more potential upwards.

The second company that was sold is Myer Holdings. The company is in the retail business and is finding it very difficult to generate profits in the current environment. It is sold with a loss of -10.2%. Without dividends, the loss would even be around -19%.

New a company has found its way into the portfolio, which probably all Swiss know: It is the Implenia AG from the construction sector. The new headquarters Glattpark in Opfikon is less than 100km away from the headquarters of the Estoppey Value Investments AG in Basel. I was myself a little surprisedI was a little surprised myself, because with a universe of around 220 Swiss companies traded on the stock exchange, the choice is not exactly large. In addition, for once it is not a company from the energy sector. But it seems that the company has done its homework in the recent past. True to the motto: Lifere nid lafere! Which is Swiss German and means as much as: Work (deliver) and not mooch! As can be berndeutschen Lexikon can be seen. Implenia's share price in mid-2018 was also once at 80.- Swiss francs and then collapsed to below CHF 20.-. Last year, Implenia managed to turn this trend around, and in a difficult year like 2022. In addition, the crash in the share price has meant that the company is now very favorably valued valuation. The favorable valuation combined with the high momentum is exactly what I like when it comes to investing. I am very curious how Implenia will develop in the coming year.

The second newcomer is Covenant Logistics - a long-established logistics company from the USA. Covenant Logistics specializes in express and shipping solutions as well as warehousing. Particularly in the current environment with supply bottlenecks and high demand, services in the logistics sector in particular are are in great demand. After the slump in logistics due to the Corona pandemic, the company was able to develop very well - precisely because of the pent-up demand of the economy.

Here is the link to the whole blog post:

https://www.valueinvestments.ch/vermoegensverwaltung-estoppey-value-investments-value-und-momentum-rebalancing-oktober-2022

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