Real estate investor Tor Andenæs and his family have been listed on the stock exchange in recent years. Torghatten’s sales last year amounted to more than one billion kroner.
CASHET INN: The Andenæs family received over a billion in an account after being sold from transport group Torghatten at the end of last year.
The Andenæs Bærum family first settled on real estate, but in recent years it has been investments in the stock exchange that have made billions flow into the coffers.
Last year was the most profitable ever for family investment firms Kvantia and Norda, which have invested specifically in technology and health.
The combined profit of the two companies ended at NOK 685 million in 2020, thanks in large part to investments in several of the larger price counters in the past year, such as Vaccibody, Kahoot and Ocean Sun.
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Among the country’s richest: Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kvantia Tor Andenæs.
Despite the fact that many of the growth model stocks in the portfolio have depreciated so far this year, companies controlled by Andenæs Kvantia, Norda and Obligasjon 2 still have a total value of NOK 2.4 billion on the Norwegian stock market, according to For an E24 review on the Arena Shareholder Service.
– We have no comment on the accounts, Kvantia manager Frode Westvold tells E24.
Cashet to Torghatten
More than half of the money is invested in biotech company Vaccibody, which has doubled in value in recent years.
In addition, the family has significant ownership interests in real estate in Oslo and Byrom, as well as listed Swedish Health, Camurus and Bioarctic and unlisted stocks.
Kapital magazine recently ranked Kvantia chairman Tor Andenæs as the 72nd richest in the country with a fortune of $4.75 billion, after a nearly 70 percent jump in value from the previous year.
Steering the ship: Chief Kvantia Frode Westfold.
The 2021 accounts will likely be settled with even stronger numbers. Just before the New Year, Kvantia subsidiary Christiania Skibs sold its just over 12 percent stake in transport group Torghatten for more than NOK 1 billion, in connection with the NOK 8.6 billion acquisition fund EQT.
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– We accepted this offer, an offer that I consider very good. At the same time, it is sad that it is now over. Tor Andenæs told E24 in December that we had been sitting in Torghatten for about 10 years.
It appears that the transaction was not registered before the end of the year, because Torghatten shares were still included in Kvantia’s accounts for 2020, with a book value of 177.8 million.
Thus, an accounting gain of more than NOK 800 million is likely to appear in the annual report for 2021.
391 million dividends
While Kvantia is a private limited company controlled by Tor Andenæs and his family, Norda is a public limited company with shares that are traded on the gray market.
Norda, a remnant of the previously listed Nordiag Health Company, holds ownership stakes in Vacsibody, Nordic Nanovector, Gentian, Bergenbio and Arctezims, among others.
Stock Picker: Former Chief Analyst Christian Ophiholm at Kvantia.
In addition to the Andenæs family, the main employees of the Andenæs group are Frode Westvold and Christian Åbyholm along with the owner in Norda. A total of 391 million shares were distributed as ordinary and extraordinary dividends after last year’s earnings.
The civil engineer Westfold holds a Ph.D. in Physics, while the economist Obiholm has a background from Norsk Hydro and Acker as well as experience as an analyst at Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch.
In April, the equity team was further strengthened with prominent fund manager Frederic Thoreisen, who announced his move from Storebrand.
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