As long as there is economic activity, there will be a need for industrial property – Hansteen
Hansteen Holdings says its strategy of buying high-yielding industrial properties at less than replacement cost with opportunities to add value, and managing them intensively via locally based management teams for income and value growth, “is an approach which is well suited to current times”. The company today reported a 41% jump in IFRS pre-tax profits to £23.7m and a 0.8% increase in the valuation of its portfolio for the half-year to 30 June 2012.
Chairman James Hambro said: “Industrial properties are simple, flexible and economical; characteristics which guarantee that, as long as there is economic activity, there will be a need for this type of property.”
Hansteen has more cash to spend and says it is seeing increasing opportunities in all its core markets. It said that identifying the very best of these was a “difficult and frustrating” process, but noted that it had recently made some purchases on “excellent” terms and had a pipeline of further opportunities, some of which were likely to be converted during the next six months.
The group, which has industrial properties in Germany, the Benelux region and the UK, said its UK portfolio of industrial properties had seen net occupancy growth equating to 7% of the total portfolio, which it described as very pleasing, but noted that this “probably reflected asset management achievement more than strength in the market, which remains fairly flat”.
