The University of Oxford’s Magdalen College is selling a 40% equity share in its £1bn GDV Oxford Science Park campus, in its search for a joint venture partner to speed up its development pipeline.
The college has appointed Cushman & Wakefield’s capital markets and life science teams to find a new strategic partner for the jv, which comprises around 250,000 sq ft of existing leased and managed buildings and 14.8 acres of development land. The latter has scope for a development pipeline of at least a further 430,000 sq ft.
The science park was originally established in 1991 as a joint venture with M&G Real Estate, with Magdalen College buying out its 50% stake in 2016 to take sole ownership. There is around 750,000 sq ft of workspace accommodation in total across the park, staffing 2,700 people.
There are more than 100 companies based at the park, active across a range of therapeutic areas and technologies including infectious diseases, cancer and artificial intelligence. Many tenants have been involved in the fight against Covid-19 through vaccines, sequencing, viral vectors and test reagents.
Occupiers include Oxford Nanopore, developer of genome sequencing technology that can decode the DNA and RNA of any living organism; Vaccitech, the immunotherapy and vaccine company behind the Oxford Covid-19 vaccine; Oxgene, a contract research and development organisation recently acquired by WuXi AppTec; and pharmatech company Exscientia.
Rory Maw, bursar at Magdalen College Oxford and director of The Oxford Science Park, said: “We believe a strategic partnership provides the most attractive mechanism to raise capital to accelerate the timetable for developing additional capacity to meet unprecedented demand and to further the discovery, innovation and entrepreneurship taking place at The Oxford Science Park.”
David Haynes, head of UK specialist markets at Cushman & Wakefield, said: “The Oxford Science Park represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in one of Europe’s leading science parks with a vibrant ecosystem of globally-recognised life science tenants.”
Andrew Hawkins, international partner, capital markets at Cushman & Wakefield, said: “There is an enormous weight of global capital targeting the life sciences sector with demand for lab space in the UK growing significantly in recent years as a result of rapid investment by international capital into life science occupiers.”
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