Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC), an insurer of defined benefit pension funds, has provided £87m of funding for a UK student-housing project.
The PIC provided a 46-year, index-linked secured loan to the University Partnerships Programme (UPP) for a 511-unit London scheme.
The 32-storey tower will be occupied by students of the University of London.
Allen Twyning, PIC head of debt origination, said: “As PIC insures increasing amounts of defined benefit pension liabilities, partnerships such as we have with UPP ensure we are able to invest in strong, secure, long-term cashflows to match our pension payments. We look forward to working with Sean and the team again.”
PIC said it had now financed around £300m of UPP student-accommodation projects, including a £114m package in July 2014 for the redevelopment of a student-accommodation project also for the University of London.
Sean O’Shea, chief executive at UPP, which manages more than 30,000 rooms in operation or development, said: “It’s absolutely vital for UK universities to have long-term, cost-effective debt structures, enabling the development of affordable residential accommodation for students.
“We have a number of projects in the pipeline and hope to do a lot more with PIC in the future.”
