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Property family turns its eyes to alternative housing form: “Will develop colossally”
Hans Thygesen, Chairman of the Board of the Kartago Group, hopes that a new and different project will be presented as early as this autumn than the provider has so far had inside the fold.
Photo: Hans Thygesen — Chairman of the Board
The Kartago Group, owned by the Thygesen family from Charlottenlund, has since 1988 developed and brokered property investments worth more than DKK 9 billion.
For a good handful of years, the Group has focused primarily on Northern European retail properties at centrally located addresses. But now Kartago is moving in a new direction.
According to Chairman and Founder Hans Thygesen, a completely different type of property will dominate the Group's investments in the future, he says in an interview with EjendomsWatch.
The focal point is the all-encompassing phenomenon of ESG, and unlike other project developers and providers who have focused on the E, environment, and focused on, among other things, solar farms, in the Kartago Group will be primarily concerned with the S, social.
Hans Thygesen, Chairman of the Board of the Kartago Group, hopes that a new and different project will be presented as early as this autumn than the provider has so far had inside the fold.
“In general, we evaluate a number of projects within ESG, and we believe that investing in social-based real estate projects will pay off best in the long term,” says Hans Thygesen.
Soon to be ready for the first project
As of early 2024, Kartago Capital, the group's project provider, has yet to present new projects to investors.
A barren transaction market weakened by interest rate hikes has made finding the right projects tricky. This has resulted in a deliberate strategy of waiting, says Hans Thygesen.
“We don't want to offer projects on an assembly line just to do that. This is not a sustainable strategy for us,” he says, explaining that the company expects a modest decrease in interest rates during 2024 and 2025 that will make projects more profitable.
Hans Thygesen, however, now sees the possibility of presenting a new project soon, in which housing targeted at social needs is at the center.
“This is an area that will develop tremendously in the future. Of course, we must first feel ahead, but we think that what we have identified so far looks exciting,” he says.
Is it then considering housing targeted particular age groups such as senior housing?
“It could easily be, but perhaps a little more related to disease-driven demand, where we particularly think that the Danish and generally Scandinavian markets are very interesting.”
The chairman expects the first socially signposted project via Kartago Capital to come up for tender in the autumn, most likely to professional investors -- but he still holds the cards close to the body when it comes to details.
Free up capital for new investments
ESG investments are not just the focus at Kartago Capital. As a private property investor with a property portfolio valued at approximately DKK 1.3 billion and majority owner of the listed German High Street Properties (GHSP), Hans Thygesen also sees opportunities within ESG on other fronts.
GHSP recently made a half-year report for 2024, which ended with a loss of just over DKK 8 million after tax compared to a profit of DKK 1.1 million in the same period last year 2023.
In connection with the half-year report, GHSP also announced a capital raising of EUR 8 million or just under DKK 60 million. According to Hans Thygesen, who is also chairman of the company's board, it is initiated to reduce a debt that amounts to about a quarter of a billion.
“We would like to move into a situation where we have lower debt and thus a better base if we want to buy new properties.”
For now, the listed company, as its name suggests, consists entirely of German retail properties with a location on the market, but in the long term, we would like to place some of the money in the Scandinavian market, where Denmark and Sweden in particular are on the radar.
“And it could easily be in ESG projects,” says Hans Thygesen, who explains that the real estate industry in Germany is a relatively heavy machine in Germany that is more difficult to manage than in Scandinavia, where the company has also previously had properties that have been sold off at a profit.
Does that mean you guys are looking to sell the German properties from?
“It's not something we have on the drawing board. If there is a good offer, we will of course consider it seriously, as we would like to move more into the Scandinavian market,” says the President, explaining that the change of focus could result in a name change.
Experiencing rich investor appetite
According to Hans Thygesen, there is a large group of investors who either primarily or exclusively demand properties oriented towards ESG.
These include pension companies, larger family funds and very wealthy people who want to be left alone on a project. But although the focus is on ESG, Hans Thygesen explains that one is not only determined on that segment.
“We will still look at other projects and invest in other property types such as retail, but we believe that ESG projects and properties will form a larger part of the Danish investor market in the future,” he concludes.