Campus Living pauses $2bn sale process

Campus Living Villages has paused its sales. Picture: istock

The sale process for the $2bn Campus Living Villages has been suspended, say sources, as owners weigh up what is next for the ­business.

The understanding is that a sale of the company as a whole is off the agenda for now, but the owners are still considering whether to divest parts of the ­company.

Few offers came in for the whole company, and those that did were below the asking price.

Most of the appeal was in the British and Australian arms, while the US division was less attractive, being sub-scale and in more regional areas.

Among those that are thought to have bid for all or parts of the company are Plenary Group and Dutch pension fund PGGM.

Previously entities like Macquarie Group-backed Greystar, Morrison & Co and Singapore investors like Mapletree were seen as logical candidates to consider a purchase.

The sale process, which was run by Goldman Sachs, excluded industry rivals, with infrastructure funds being the main focus.

But the thinking after the process stalled is that the Wall Street bank may now widen the field to include rivals such as Scape Student ­Living.

Scape purchased rival operator Atria in 2019.

Campus Living, run by former Stockland executive John Schroder, operates university accommodation in Australia, New Zealand, Britain and the US with 27,100 beds across 46 villages.

Each country has a substantial share.

Attempts were made by the owners – Hostplus, REST, Equip Super and NGS Super – to sell the company in 2017 for $2bn.

Campus Living’s Australian assets are spread along the east coast – headlined by the University of Sydney, University of NSW, Griffith University and RMIT and Edith Cowan and Murdoch universities in the west.

UniLodge is the largest provider of student accommodation in Australia ahead of Scape and Iglu.

Campus Living was initially touted for a listing on the Australian Securities Exchange and UBS was appointed.

The sale comes as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese plans to introduce a cap 270,000 on international students in Australia.

This has been met with resistance by opposition leader Peter Dutton, who is arguing for deeper cuts to address the country’s housing shortage.