The transaction, valued at over $625 million, brings together Japanese capital, Asia Pacific real estate investment expertise and a leading operating platform in one of the region’s most active real assets sectors. It positions Samty Holdings at the forefront of the student accommodation market and reflects the increasing focus of global capital on purpose-built student accommodation as a resilient real assets sector. UniLodge manages more than 45,000 beds across over 150 facilities in Australia and New Zealand, supported by an asset-light model, long-standing university partnerships and institutional owner relationships. The acquisition was implemented through a highly competitive auction process and involved complex cross-border structuring, management equity rollovers, joint venture arrangements, foreign investment considerations and real assets due diligence, all delivered under an accelerated timetable. G+T advised across all aspects of the transaction, drawing on its integrated expertise across private M&A, joint ventures, foreign investment, real assets and regulatory matters. The team was led by Co-head of Real Assets and Partner Ben Cosentino and Corporate Advisory Partner Peter Cook, with support from a cross-practice team across corporate advisory, real assets, real estate, technology and intellectual property, employment, disputes and investigations, banking, and competition, consumer and market regulation. Key team members included partners Deborah Johns, Amanda Hempel, Melissa Fai, Anna Smyth, Tom Brett, Daniel MacPherson, Stuart Cormack and Andrew Low, special counsel Jo Bayes and Alison Morris, consultant Akshar Patel, and lawyers Morgan Foulsham, Sean Meehan, Jack Stephens, Kim Nguyen, Dean Wolman, Ben Bylykbashi, Sherry Chen, Tom Webb, Carl Azar, Jeraldine Mow, Samantha Shariev, Madison Krummel, Justin Song, Brent Thompson, Josephine Le and Billy Elsum. Ben Cosentino commented: |
UniLodge is a market-leading platform in a sector attracting significant global investor interest. We were pleased to support Samty Holdings, Hillhouse and Rava Partners on this complex cross-border acquisition. The transaction required seamless coordination across multiple workstreams, including private M&A, foreign investment, joint ventures and real assets. It is a strong example of G+T’s integrated real assets capability in action.
