Unite’s Hayes on plans to integrate Liberty – UK

December 5th 2019 - Posted by

Unite’s £1.4bn takeover of Liberty Living was completed last week, just over six months after the student accommodation giant announced it was in talks to buy the business from Canadian pension business CPPIB.

The scale of the proposed deal triggered an investigation from the Competition and Markets Authority, (CMA) but it was given the green light in early November.
Property Week caught up with Unite group property director Nick Hayes to find out more about what Unite plans to do next.

Why did Unite want to buy Liberty Living?

We’d admired Liberty for a long time. There¹s good overlap between us as businesses and the cities we operate in. Plus it has always been institutionally well regarded, and had high occupancy. We were thinking about where to take the business and invested a lot of capital in setting up Unite¹s structure for growth, so we reached out to CPPIB to see if they would entertain a transaction …

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UPP announces Financial Close on new £43m deal

December 2nd 2019 - Posted by

University Partnerships Programme (UPP), the UK’s leading provider of on-campus residential and academic accommodation infrastructure, has successfully reached financial close on a deal worth £43 million with St Modwen Developments, Swansea University and Swan Global LLP for the acquisition of the freehold of 411 rooms at Bay Campus, where UPP will deliver a full facilities management service.

The deal takes the number of rooms operated by UPP on the Bay Campus to 2,432 and boosts UPP’s portfolio of over 35,000 rooms in operation or under construction through long-term partnerships with 15 leading UK universities.

It comes on the back of a c. £98 million transaction between St Modwen Developments, Swansea University and UPP in February 2018, where UPP acquired two companies from St Modwen Properties PLC to operate 2,021 study bedrooms on the University’s Bay Campus, as well as acquiring a freehold property interest in further accommodation …

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Unite: Completion of Acquisition of Liberty Living

November 29th 2019 - Posted by

Unite Group Plc is pleased to announce that it has completed the acquisition of Liberty Living Group Plc from Liberty Living Holdings Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (“CPPIB”) (the “Acquisition”).

Richard Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Unite, said: “I am delighted that we have completed the transformational acquisition of Liberty Living, reinforcing our position as a leading provider of purpose-built student accommodation in the UK. This deal brings together two complementary businesses who share a commitment to providing high quality, affordable student accommodation with a focus on service and welfare and a strategic alignment to universities where student demand is strongest.

“The deal will accelerate our earnings, driving meaningful accretion from 2020 onwards. It also gives us enhanced scale which, combined with our best-in-class operating platform, means we are well-placed to meet the substantial market opportunity from the 1.5 million students requiring accommodation each year.” …

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Blackrock-linked Entity Sells UK Student Digs To Far East Orchard For £66.5m

November 15th 2019 - Posted by

A subsidiary of the Far East Organization has reached an agreement to purchase assets from a BlackRock-linked entity. The deal includes a pair of student dorms in the UK that will be sold to the Singapore-listed property developer, Far East Orchard for £66.5 million ($85 million).

The new acquisition in Leeds and Sheffield brings Far East Orchard’s UK student housing portfolio to 3,260 beds across 11 dorms in six cities as indicated in company filing …

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SPH buys 284-bed student accommodation in Germany for 15.6m euros

November 14th 2019 - Posted by

SINGAPORE Press Holdings (SPH) is diversifying its purpose-built student accommodation portfolio beyond the UK, with a 15.6 million euro (S$23.4 million) acquisition in Bremen, Germany.

SPH’s wholly-owned subsidiary Straits Nine has entered into an asset purchase agreement with Liberty Living (Galileo Residenz) for the proposed acquisition, SPH, which publishes The Business Times, said early on Thursday morning.

This is the company’s fifth investment since last year …

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