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Unite Students announces completion of OCB assets sale and investment into UCC joint venture – 23 May 2014

11 November 2016

Unite Students, the UK’s leading developer and manager of student accommodation, announces that following last month’s exchange of unconditional contracts to sell its three Oasis Capital (OCB) joint venture assets, the sale has now been formally completed. The sale price of £174 million is supportive of the existing book value and is in line with expectations. Unite Students will have no operational involvement in the assets with immediate effect. 

As previously announced the joint venture has used the proceeds to repay outstanding debt and distributed the net proceeds to Unite Students and its joint venture partner, OCB. As part of the transaction, Unite has recycled its share of the net proceeds of £18 million, together with the investment of a further £8 million, into its London-focused Unite Capital Cities (UCC) joint venture with GIC, in order to increase its share to a 50:50 holding. This equalisation process will enable the merger of UCC and LSAV (London Student Accommodation Vehicle) later this year thereby forming a single investment vehicle. 

The sale of the OCB joint venture assets and the subsequent merger of the Group’s two GIC joint ventures will deliver Unite Students’ plan to simplify its co-investment vehicles by reducing the number from four to two. 

Richard Simpson, Managing Director of Property for Unite Students, said: 

“We are pleased to announce the completion of this asset disposal, which is line with our longer term plan to simplify our investment vehicles by using the proceeds to equalise our share in UCC.

The strength and depth of interest in this portfolio demonstrates the continued growth in investor appetite in the purpose built student accommodation sector, with the volume of transactions almost doubling since 2011.”