Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and The Scion Group have acquired a US student housing portfolio for around $1.1bn (€831.3bn).
The Scion Student Communities partnership, created by the trio in January 2016, said the portfolio consists of 24 assets located in 20 diversified university campus markets across the U.S. comprising 13,666 beds.
CPPIB and GIC each own a 45% interest in the newly acquired portfolio and Scion owns the remaining 10%.
The transaction includes the acquisition of 22 properties from affiliates of Harrison Street Real Estate Capital and the recapitalisation of two communities previously owned by Scion-affiliated private syndications, it said.
Since its inception, the joint venture has completed over $4.0bn of investments primarily through four significant portfolio transactions, in which approximately $1.4bn in equity capital has been deployed.
Hilary Spann, the managing director of CPPIB Americas’ real estate investments, said: “This is a compelling investment opportunity to efficiently build further scale in the US student housing sector with a portfolio of high-quality, well-located properties in new and existing joint venture markets.
“We believe the secular strength of the U.S. student housing sector will continue to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns for the CPP Fund, and we look forward to continue growing the joint venture with GIC and Scion.”
The joint venture’s portfolio now includes 73 student housing communities in 52 top-tier university markets, comprising 46,555 beds.
Lee Kok Sun, GIC’s real estate chief investment officer said: “We remain confident in the student housing sector, and in our partnership with Scion and CPPIB which has enabled us to scale-up quickly our U.S. student housing portfolio. We will continue to work closely with our partners to pursue value opportunities in the U.S.”
