EMH Partners is investing in Design Offices. Together with its existing investor, Art-Invest Real Estate, the investment company is investing approximately €60 million. The company, which currently has four locations in Munich, is Germany's leading provider of flexible space solutions for agile working. The fresh capital will be invested primarily in the development of additional locations in Germany and in expansion into Austria and Switzerland.
With this investment, which will be realized via a capital increase, EMH Partners is acquiring a significant minority stake in Design Offices. Shareholder Art-Invest Real Estate, which is also participating in the capital increase, and company founder Michael O. Schmutzer will continue to hold stakes in the company.
EMH and Art-Invest are thus investing in one of the world's fastest-growing real estate segments. According to industry experts at CBRE, the flexible working market has grown by an average of 13 percent in the past ten years alone, meaning the overall market has tripled since then. The coworking segment is currently growing at an average annual rate of around 25 percent, significantly faster, with the German market experiencing particularly strong momentum due to pent-up demand.
A highly scalable business model
"Thanks to digitalization, our entire working world is changing. The desire for flexible working has never been stronger than today, and project work is becoming increasingly important. This creates an enormous need for space outside of companies,"
says Dr. Thomas von Werner, partner of EMH Partners.
"As one of the absolute pioneers in the New Work and coworking market, Design Offices not only recognized this trend early on, but also played a key role in shaping it. The company is in pole position in a dynamic market with a highly scalable and profitable business model."
Markus Wiedenmann, Managing Director of Art-Invest Real Estate, says:
"We are delighted to have gained such a strong entrepreneurial partner in EMH as an additional shareholder. EMH's digitalization expertise and its competence in corporate development are particularly valuable to Design Offices. Design Offices serves important trends in the real estate industry such as customer focus, flexibility, increased service quality, and modern working environments. Together, we will take the company to a new level of scale over the next two years."
“The DACH region offers us enormous growth potential”
Design Offices currently employs more than 250 people and plans to more than double its space to up to 200,000 square meters in 2018 and 2019.
“New Work means offering people an inspiring place for self-determined and agile work in an increasingly flexible working world,”
says Michael O. Schmutzer, founder and managing director of Design Offices.
"We've done very well in this regard over the past ten years. We've established ourselves as a major player in the German market. Now we want to write another chapter in this success story and grow to a new level of scale. The DACH region offers us enormous growth potential, which we intend to fully exploit with the support of EMH Partners."
