Business News in Brief: Think-tank highlights shortage of student accommodation in Denmark

In other stories, exports slump while a Danish cannabis firm has high hopes about future demand

The increase in the Danish student population, both home-grown and internationals, is having an adverse effect on the student housing market, a survey carried out by the Class of 2020 think-tank reveals.

Unable to keep pace
Housing stocks have not been able to keep pace and student housing is only able to accommodate 28 percent of students nationwide.

Some institutions, such as the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), are building new on-campus blocks in an attempt to alleviate the growing problem, but this is not expected to be enough.

Ripe for investment
Copenhagen has the worst student housing sector of any featured in the latest report, with 12,382 ‘study rooms’ available for the 72,098 students in the Danish capital each academic year.

Class of 2020 is advising potential investors in the sector to look to Denmark, following the lead of global investment and real estate experts CBRE, which recently told readers of its briefing email that the country is both “the right time and place to invest.”


Danish exports down again
Despite strong demand abroad, Denmark’s exports have declined while imports have increased, figures from national statistics keeper Danmarks Statistik released on Tuesday reveal. Exports in August (excluding ships, aircraft and fuel) fell 1.9 percent year-on-year following a 1.8 percent fall in July. Imports rose by 1 percent after a 1.1 percent decrease in the previous month. But seen sequentially, exports grew 4.1 percent in the three months to August. August’s trade surplus, excluding ships, aircraft and fuel, was a seasonally adjusted 5 billion kroner. It was especially exports to countries outside the EU that lagged. A new analysis carried out by Dansk Industri reveals that 805,000 Danish jobs are dependent on exports – and this is the highest level ever.

Danish medicinal cannabis firm goes public
StenoCare was founded in 2017 and was the first Danish company to obtain permission to import, produce and sell cannabis oil in Denmark for medicinal purposes. Yesterday, the company offered its shares for sale in Copenhagen. After share allocations have been completed, the company plans to be officially listed on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange on October 26. StenoCare is the first company of its kind in Europe to launch an IPO to take advantage of a surge in investor interest. The company is confident the legalisation of medicinal cannabis in a number of countries in Europe – including Germany, the UK, Italy and Czech Republic – has opened up a potentially lucrative market.

No longer on the cards
The world’s oldest credit card, Diners Club, is pulling out of the Danish market from 31 May 2019, reports BT. The card company is also pulling out of Norway and Sweden. In the Nordics, the Swedish bank SEB has the license to offer the cards, which have an estimated  500,000 customers in the Nordic countries. According to the company the reason given for dropping the Danish market is “increasing regulation and competition in the credit card market”.