Greystar makes biggest Asia Pacific investment
Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC with SGX listed Wee Hur Holdings have banked $1.6 billion from seven Australian purpose-built student accommodation investments.
The deal for the Y-suite branded facilities will see buyer Greystar enter the local sector.
It would also boost by nearly 10 per cent the value of the group’s privatised operational platform, Greystar Student Accommodation, which since being created in 2013, holds assets in the UK and continental Europe valued last September at $16.8b, and US product priced at c$9.8b.
Globally the South Carolina based group, which focuses on multi-living housing and build to rent, manages real estate worth an estimated $520b across 250 markets.
Greystar’s biggest Asia Pacific deal
Wee Hur built the Australian PBSA portfolio since 2015; with assets near major universities in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra, it contains 5562 beds.
It and GIC will reinvest to retain a 13pc stake in the new ownership entity (Wee Hur will also tip additional proceeds into other projects).
The sale, which needed Foreign Investment Review Board approval, is Greystar’s biggest by value in the Asia Pacific (story continues below).
Settlement occurred April 1.
Greystar now plans to upgrade the buildings.
It is also expected to rebrand them.
Minter Ellison’s Wissam Abwi, who represented the vendors with Hannah Dixon and Ben Rumble, said the “market-moving deal” involved a complete stake sale and a “strategic” reinvestment.
The deal comes a fortnight since we reported London based M&G Real Estate outlaid $97m for the Unilodge Royal Park, in Melbourne’s north Parkville, with 368 beds in 328 suites.
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