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Outcome of USAF fund raising – 19 May 2015

8 November 2016

The Unite UK Student Accommodation Fund (“USAF”, “the Fund”) successfully completed a fundraising, accepting unconditional subscriptions for £306 million of new equity from existing and new investors. The new units will be priced at the prevailing quarterly NAV at the time when capital is drawn plus a premium of approximately 1.5%. The capital will be used to fund acquisitions and reduce leverage in the Fund.

As part of the fund raise, USAF has broadened and diversified its investor base providing access to different pools of capital. Allianz Real Estate, acting as a cornerstone investor, invested £100 million and a further £14 million was raised from other new institutional investors. Existing unitholders invested a total of £192 million, including Unite’s investment of £60 million representing the planned deployment of proceeds from its own recent equity fundraising, maintaining its stake in USAF at circa 22%.

USAF is continuing to appraise a number of acquisition opportunities that will enhance the quality of the portfolio and expects to deploy the capital earmarked for investment by the end of the year.

USAF will initially use the funds to reduce leverage from the current level of 40% LTV and intends to maintain it below this level going forward.

Commenting on the transaction, Joe Lister, Unite’s Chief Financial Officer, said:

“We are delighted to have successfully raised over £300 million of new capital into USAF providing the Fund with capacity for acquisitions and the ability to further de-lever the balance sheet in line with our plans.

“The strength of demand for USAF units together with the introduction of an investor of Allianz’s global standing is a real endorsement of USAF’s position as the leading fund in the sector, its historic performance and future strategy.”