News

Akademiska Hus Interim Report 1 January–31 March 2019

Monday, 29 April 2019

Akademiska Hus reports higher earnings compared with the previous year as a result of higher changes in the value of its property holdings. Net operating income also increased in relation to the comparative period. During the quarter an array of initiatives were implemented thatcreate attractive campuses and strengthen the Company’s customer delivery.

The Interim Report in brief:

• Rental revenue was SEK 1,533 million (1,489).
  
  
• Net operating income was SEK 1,079 million (1,037), an increase of SEK 42 million.
  
  
• Profit before changes in value and tax was SEK 965 million (961).
  
  
• Unrealised changes in value of properties totalled SEK 1,049 million (263), corresponding to a 1.2 per cent (0.3) increase in the value of the properties.
  
  
• Total financing cost was SEK -291 million (-266), of which SEK -197 million (-207) relates to changes in the value of financial instruments.
  
  
• Profit before tax was SEK 1,817 million (1,017) and profit for the period was SEK 1,437 million (784).
  
  
• Investments in redevelopment, extensions and new construction totalled SEK 829 million (679).
  
  
• The yield (excluding properties under construction) was 5.0 per cent (5.3) over the past 12 months.

During the first quarter of the year Akademiska Hus began construction on 108 new apartments at Ultuna that will provide 132 undergraduate and graduate students with campus-based housing.The initiative will make Uppsala more attractive as a student town and help the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences to meet its estimated student housing needs at Ultuna for the coming years. Akademiska Hus is investing SEK 193 million in the project. Within the same campus, Akademiska Hus signed a contract with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) on the sale of the stable at the Centre for Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science (VHC) for SEK 355 million. The stable accounts for about 10,000 square metres of the total area of the VHC.

Akademiska Hus, along with a number of leading companies in the property industry and management company Fastighetsägarna Service, has taken initiative to develop a digital access platform. Through the jointly financed company Accessy, the founders want to create an independent operator for the development of digital keys to enable property owners to easily distribute access, rights and authorities to locked spaces such as offices, meeting rooms, premises or apartments.

“With digital access through Accessy, we will be able to provide a better customer experience at the same time that we automate time-consuming key handling. Accessy is an excellent example of how Akademiska Hus can help to effect change that will benefit our customers, our own business and the industry at large”, says Kerstin Lindberg Göransson, President of Akademiska Hus.

The prestigious Building of the Year award was presented in March. The winner was Biomedicum, one of the largest research labs in Europe, which Akademiska Hus built for Karolinska Institutet in Solna.The Building of the Year award is the most prestigious honour in the built environment sector, highlighting examples of the industry’s finest achievements during the year in terms of quality, project collaboration, finances and design.

• Finance