Resa, the largest owner of student residences in Spain, has a new owner. The Dutch pension fund PGGM has prevailed in the sale process and will acquire the company from its current owners, the Greystar fund, AXA IM Alts and investors from CBRE Investment Management. The amount of the operation has not been confirmed.
The sale process started at the beginning of the year, when the current owners contracted Banco Eastdil Secured and the CBRE consultancy for the sale of the company, valued at 900 million euros. Among the interested parties, the British firm Global Student Accommodation (GSA), the US fund KKR and the Canadian Brookfield stood out. However, only Bankinter, which is already present in the sector through LIV Student, entered the final phase together with PGGM.
Resa has 11,200 beds in 21 key cities, including Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. When Greystar and the rest of the investors entered the company in 2017, the company had 33 residences. Currently, the portfolio has 43 residences (40 are in operation and 3 are under development, with openings planned for 2024 and 2025).
BBVA (M&A and debt advisor), Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (legal), KPMG (financial and fiscal), and Savills (technical) have advised PGGM on the acquisition. For their part, Eastdil Secured (M&A), CBRE (commercial), Garrigues (legal and fiscal), Deloitte (financial), Arcadis (technical) and Longevity have advised Axa IM Alts, CBRE IM and Greystar on the sale.
