Saudi financial institution Riyad Capital has formed a joint venture with Singapore’s Ascott to invest US$375m (€332m) to build student accommodation in the US.
Ascott, a lodging business unit of CapitaLand Investment, said the Student Accommodation Development Venture (SAVE), had a start-up equity commitment of US$150m.
Riyad Capital will have an 80% stake in SAVE, while Ascott will hold a 20% stake and manage the venture.
Ascott said the Saudi company was an existing partner from Ascott’s network of lodging property owners.
Kevin Goh, CapitaLand Investments CEO for lodging, said in 2021, the lodging funds under management grew by more than 7% year-on-year to over S$8bn.
“SAVE will further increase our funds under management by about US$375m when fully deployed.”
With the new acquisition, Ascott has invested about US$648.9m to build a diversified and quality portfolio of nine student accommodation assets in a year via its funds and its sponsored trust, Ascott Residence Trust.
Riyad Capital’s real estate arm, Riyad International Real Estate, in November sold an office building in Arlington Virginia for more than US$200m.
The property platform was launched in 2018 and has since acquired SR9bn (€2.1bn) of commercial buildings leased to institutional-grade tenants on long-term leases in primary metropolitan cities in the US and Europe.
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