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Hill Dickinson advises Downing on £344m sale of student accommodation schemes to Blackstone

Hill Dickinson advises Downing on £344m sale of student accommodation schemes to Blackstone

Full service commercial law firm Hill Dickinson has advised Liverpool headquartered Downing on the multi-million pound sale of two of the property developer’s purpose-built student accommodation assets to IQ Student Accommodation, a Blackstone portfolio company

The disposal of Vega, an 841-bed property in Vauxhall, London, and The Mont, a 324-bed property located close to the Central Area of the University of Edinburgh adds more than 1000 beds to Blackstone’s UK student housing portfolio.

Hill Dickinson led on the provision of legal advice to Downing, fielding a multidisciplinary team including partners Jon Gillow (Corporate), Craig Scott (Corporate), Richard Capper (Banking) and Luke Green (Employment and Education); legal director Rebecca Layton (Banking), senior associate Katy Oakes (Corporate), apprentice solicitor Nick O’Shaughnessy and trainee solicitor Aniqa Nilima (both Corporate).

Commenting on how the sale will support Downing’s continued growth in the student accommodation sector, investment director Bay Downing said: 
“This transaction will enhance our ability to accelerate the expansion of our pipeline, which already includes over 5000 new student beds across Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, Brighton, Newcastle and London.  As the UK’s longest-standing private PBSA provider, we are proud to manage a vast portfolio of high-quality student accommodation. We have strong ambitions for the growth of Downing Students and Downing Living, and going forward, we will seek co-investment opportunities with the right partners.” 

Speaking for Hill Dickinson, Jon Gillow said: 
“We are very pleased to have worked with Downing on this latest disposal, which demonstrates how our multidisciplinary approach helps to manage all the various aspects and complexities of a transaction of this size and nature. This latest transaction will enable Downing to make further investments and continue building its growing student accommodation portfolio.  We are delighted at the successful outcome for Downing and all involved.”

The sale is part of Downing’s continued expansion plans. The company currently has more than £1 billion-worth of developments in the pipeline at sites across the UK.

Corporate

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Our highly experienced and recognised corporate team operates from our offices in Liverpool, Manchester, London, Leeds, Hong Kong and Singapore. We offer our clients accessible corporate support from our experienced national and international network and specialise in advising a range of clients, from large listed companies and private equity funds to smaller start-up and owner-managed businesses and management teams on the full range of transactions – both domestic and cross-border. Our advice is distinctly commercial and focused on our clients’ commercial goals.

We work in small partner-led teams, providing our clients with easy access to our partners on transactions. We offer an innovative approach to managing client relationships and fee arrangements, which sets us apart from many of our competitors. We are able to offer our clients a timely, relevant and cost-effective service, that adds real value to the transaction process.