UNITE joint venture to sell London properties

7th Apr 2014 07:09

UNITE Group, the student accommodation firm, has announced that its joint venture Oasis Capital (OCB) is selling its portfolio of three London assets.OCB, in which UNITE holds a 25% stake, is a five-year joint venture set up in 2009 to develop and manage three London properties: Woodland Court, Wedgwood Court and Great Suffolk Street. The sale of the 1,129-bed assets, at £174m, is "in line with stated strategy", UNITE said. The company said the sale price is both supportive of existing book value and in line with expectations.OCB will use the cash to repay outstanding debt and the net proceeds will be distributed to UNITE and the other joint venture partner. UNITE will not have any operational involvement following completion which is expected within two months.UNITE said it will recycle its share of the net proceeds of £18m into its London-focused UNITE Capital Cities (UCC) joint venture with GIC in order to raise its share to a 50:50 holding. "This equalisation is a pre-condition to the merger of UCC and LSAV (London Student Accommodation Vehicle), a development joint venture with GIC, to form a single investment vehicle," the company said.Managing Director of Property, Richard Simpson, said that the move to equalise UNITE's stake in UCC will "maintain our current exposure to the London market and support of our longer-term strategy to simplify our investment vehicles".BC