Unite Students completes sale of OCB assets, invests proceeds in JV

23rd May 2014 07:57

Unite Students, which develops and manages accommodation, has completed the sale of its three Oasis Capital (OCB) joint venture (JV) assets.The sale price was £174m, which it said was supportive of the existing book value and is in line with expectations. The proceeds were used to repay outstanding debt and were distributed between Unite Students and OCB. Unite previously said it would recycle its share of the net proceeds of £18m, together with the investment of a further £8m, into its London-focused Unite Capital Cities (UCC) JV with GIC, in order to increase its share to a 50:50 holding. This equalisation process will enable the merger of UCC and London Student Accommodation Vehicle later this year to form a single investment vehicle. 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."NR