This involved a total of 49,686,114 new ordinary shares in the student accommodation specialist being made available. These were placed with institutional investors via investment bank J.P. Morgan Cazenove and Deutsche Numis.

These shares were issued at a price of £9 per share, representing a discount of 2.6% to the middle market closing price on 23 July 2024 when shares traded at £9.24 — this raised a total of approximately £447m.

Concurrently, certain directors at Unite subscribed for further shares.

An aggregate of 13,886 new ordinary shares were placed raising gross proceeds of approximately £125,000.

Additionally, retail investors subscribed to a separate offer made by Unite by PrimaryBid platform — this placing of 300,000 new ordinary shares raised gross proceeds of approximately £3m.

Altogether these shares represent 11.4% of the existing issued ordinary share capital of Unite prior to the £450m capital raise.

•   UTB funds £30m south London development
•   UTB provides funding for £5m brownfield development via its Housing Accelerator Fund
•   Stonewater issues £250m sustainability bond to cut carbon and build thousands of homes

The Unite directors receiving the most shares in the capital raise, with 2,777 apiece, were CEO Joe Lister and CFO Michael Burt.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

“The proceeds will support a doubling of our committed pipeline by year end to cover £1bn and see us acquiring assets with asset management potential from USAF to enhance our future returns,” said Joe.

“This capital raise enables us to accelerate the delivery of new, high quality and affordable student accommodation where it is needed most and support the growth ambitions of our university partners.”