CBRE Global Investment Partners has completed the sale of approximately 75% of the Curlew Student Trust portfolio, comprising purpose-built student accommodation throughout the UK.
The 15 student accommodation assets (5,407 beds) in the sale portfolio are located in 12 strong university cities across the UK including London, Birmingham, Bath, Durham and Sheffield. The sale also includes land in Swansea that is consented for the development of student accommodation.
Curlew Student Trust (“CST”) was launched in 2013 as a seven-year fund, with three seed assets, backed by clients of CBRE Global Investment Partners and managed by Curlew Alternative Asset Management. The Fund’s strategy to acquire and forward fund high-quality purpose built student accommodation has been successful with CST seeing significant growth, expanding to 20 assets (6,254 beds) with a further five assets (1,014 beds) due to be completed for the start of the 2018/19 academic year. Given the strong performance of the Fund and the fulfilment of its objectives to date, a decision to sell approximately 75% of the portfolio was taken.
The sale of the portfolio was completed on 1 February 2018.
CST is retaining approximately 25% of its total portfolio and this will continue to be managed by Curlew. Furthermore, following the success of CST, CBRE Global Investment Partners and Curlew have launched a second venture in the UK student accommodation sector, Curlew Student Trust 2 (“CST 2”). CST 2 will follow a similar strategy to its predecessor fund and already has two seed assets (917 beds) under offer for delivery in 2020. The follow-on fund also has an active pipeline of opportunities.
Alex Bignell, Region Head of UK, CBRE Global Investment Partners said: “It is very satisfying to have established a successful programmatic venture with a leading student operator, Curlew, in a sector of the market where CBRE GIP identified a compelling investment opportunity. We are very pleased with the returns generated for our clients to date. CBRE GIP and Curlew see further opportunities in the sector and look forward to working on these together.”
Paul Oliver, CEO, Curlew Alternative Asset Management said: “The Curlew team are delighted to have crystallized this exceptional performance for our investors and look forward to the completion of the retained element of the portfolio and the success of the newly launched second fund.”
