CHALLENGE
Milestone, the student arm of Value One Holdings, an Austrian property developer, had identified a pipeline of projects in Portugal and had drawn up a business plan for a wider European expansion. They required Savills assistance to help them secure a financial partner who would work with Milestone to secure these sites, develop residences and aggregate a multinational portfolio of scale across several countries. The nascence of the Portuguese market, coupled with the challenge of educating investors about the benefits of owning a cross border portfolio made this a challenging transaction to structure.
SOLUTION
Savills first worked with Milestone to secure further projects in Portugal to ensure that the pipeline was sufficient to entice prospective investors. After which, Savills drew up a list of parties who we believed had the appetite and ambitions to match Milestone’s and whose return targets would be met by the developments considered in the seed fund. We collated marketing materials and presented this unique opportunity to a select group of investors in a streamlined process.
RESULTS
After several meetings with potential parties, Savills secured Nuveen (then TH Real Estate) as the preferred partner for Milestone, with them agreeing to not only fund the seed portfolio but to work alongside Milestone to source and secure PBSA opportunities in several European countries with Milestone retaining the development management and operating responsibilities. Milestone have just opened their second scheme in Portugal, in Porto, thanks to the funding of Nuveen and continue to grow across Europe.
