Student accommodation companies bought out of administration

Administrators at PwC have announced the sale of eight student property companies out of administration.

The Opal Group, which includes eight different companies, has been sold to Australian student accommodation operator Campus Living Villages for £244.9 million. The companies had been under the joint administration of Toby Underwood, David Kelly and Ian Green from PwC LLP since the middle of March 2013.

Campus Living Villages will now take control of all Opal companies – Leeds Two Limited, Birmingham One Limited, Opal Student Homes Limited, Tradefull Limited, Opal SPV 1 Limited, Opal Student Accommodation Limited, OSB Limited and Opal Greenwich 1 Limited. In total these eight companies cover seven major cities across England and Wales, with 4,593 bed spaces.

Underwood, joint administrator and partner at PwC, said: “This is an excellent result for all stakeholders – the secured creditors and universities, but especially the students. This was a highly complex assignment that needed experts from across the PwC network.

Underwood added that there had been a lot of interest in the huge portfolio of student accommodations, which resulted in complex negotiations with numerous bidders. However, much of the interest was just for individual properties or individual companies rather than the entire Opal Group.

He continued: “Campus Living Villages became our preferred bidder for the entire portfolio. Their bid represented the best outcome for creditors on a property by property basis.”

______________________________________________________________________
Related information:
Track the administration here and here.
Profit from buying a distressed business

Share this article

Latest Businesses for Sale

View more businesses for sale