Delancey has launched a new fundraising process to grow its £1.5bn PRS company, Get Living.
The investor and fund manager run by chairman and chief executive Jamie Ritblat has appointed Lazard and Eastdil Secured as advisers. No definitive amount has been determined for the fundraising, but it is expected to bring in £500m to £600m.
Delancey already has a stellar group of backers behind its opportunity fund DV4: Oxford Properties, APG and Qatar Investment Authority. It is looking to fuel its expansion further by bringing in capital that will allow it to further strengthen its position as the UK’s fastest-growing PRS company, building out its existing projects and buying new ones.
Get Living owns around 2,000 operational flats at East Village at the Olympic Park in Stratford, E20, and Elephant and Castle, SE1. It also has a pipeline of around 5,000 further homes across three schemes – Middlewood Locks in Manchester, Merchant City in Glasgow and Globe Road in Leeds. It is aiming to build a 12,500-flat, £5.5bn portfolio.
The new capital will come into the £600m Delancey Oxford Residential (DOOR) vehicle, which was established in July when Oxford backed Get Living. DOOR owns 39% of Get Living and is backed by DV4 and Oxford. QIA and APG own the remainder of Get Living, with 22% and 39% respectively.
As a result of the new fundraise, none of the current backers of Get Living will materially sell down their positions and the capital will be reinvested.
Delancey has been steadily realising gains this year, including the sale of two large London residential development sites with total end values of £700m. It is also in the process of selling its £400m db symmetry logistics business, alongside Barwood, as it deploys capital into the PRS and provides returns to investors.
Delancey, Oxford, APG and QIA came within a hair’s breadth of buying Lone Star’s £2.25bn Quintain and its giant Wembley Park PRS project last month, but after months of negotiations the two sides could not agree a deal despite being only around 7% away on pricing.
Ironically, the two advisory firms for the fundraising were acting on opposite sides of the Wembley deal, with Eastdil, alongside Credit Suisse, advising Lone Star, while Lazard had been acting for Delancey and its partners. This week Max von Hurter, former director at Lazard, also joined Eastdil as managing director, and is expected to work on the fundraise.
To send feedback, e-mail david.hatcher@egi.co.uk or tweet @hatcherdavid or @estatesgazette
