02 July 2015

Experts from Burges Salmon have advised the sellers of the AUB UK Student Accommodation Fund on the sale of the fund to the Unite UK Student Accommodation Fund (USAF).

The Burges Salmon team, led by Real Estate partner Rick Read, brought together lawyers from the firm’s Corporate, Banking, Tax, Planning, and Construction and Engineering teams, in acting for the sellers of the AUB UK Student Accommodation Fund on the sale of the entirety of the Fund’s portfolio of eight student accommodation properties located throughout the UK for £271 million.

AUB’s UK Student Accommodation Fund was set-up as a Sharia-compliant vehicle and in 2011 made its entry into the sector via Sidney Webb House, a £23.3 million 446-bed student residence in central London and Broadcasting House in Leeds, for approximately £15 million. The fund has since acquired prime assets in the leading university towns of London, Birmingham, Oxford, Durham, Leeds, York and Glasgow.

Sami Tamim, DCEO, Private Banking and Wealth Management, AUB UK, commented: 'The AUB UK Student Accommodation Fund has produced excellent results for our clients and we are delighted to have assembled such a strong team of specialist advisers to be able to deliver out performance for our investors.'

USAF, which is managed by The Unite Group PLC, is the largest specialist student accommodation vehicle in the UK.

The transaction completed on 30 June 2015.

Rick Read said: “We are pleased to have been able to support AUB UK Student Accommodation Fund’s growth over the past few years. Our team has particular expertise in funding and developing student accommodation projects and in Islamic finance. This enabled us to deliver a top quality service to our client as it grew the portfolio and to guide the client through all it needed to do to ensure the sale was delivered successfully.”

Key contact

Richard Read

Richard Read Partner

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