Mapletree acquires portfolio of US & Canada assets worth S$2.2 bil

SINGAPORE (June 2): Mapletree Investments, the Temasek-backed property development, investment and capital management company, acquired a portfolio of assets from Kayne Anderson Real Estate Advisors worth US$1.6 billion (S$2.2 billion or RM6.85 billion).

The portfolio comprises eight purpose-built student housing assets with 3,611 beds in the US and 140 beds in Canada, as well as four multi-family assets with 1,388 units in the US.

Citigroup Global Markets acted as the exclusive financial adviser to Kayne Real Estate on the entirety of the sale transactions with Mapletree.

In a Friday press release, Mapletree says its latest agreement with Kayne Real Estate represents one of the largest transactions in student housing globally.

In particular, the group highlights that the majority of its eight housing assets in the recently-acquired portfolio are mostly ranked as Tier 1 with strong occupancy above 90%, and are positioned for further growth as most of the assets have been completed over the last three years.

Mapletree acquired its first US student housing portfolio of seven assets from Kayne Real Estate in Nov 2016, and now has 17 assets with 12,000 beds across 16 cities in the US alone.

The latest acquisition brings the group’s total student housing portfolio to 43 assets with 18,024 beds located across 29 cities in the US, Canada and the UK, including assets held by its sponsored Mapletree Global Student Accommodation Private Trust (MGSA P-Trust).

“Growing university enrolment rates continue to drive demand for student housing. This sector is still under-served and we see opportunities as there is a gap between enrolment and total supply of purpose-built student housing,” says Hiew Yoon Khong, group CEO of Mapletree.

“We intend to scale up in this sector globally including in Australia and continental Europe, aside from the UK and the US." — theedgemarkets.com.sg

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