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Bloomberg
Unite Group Plc agreed to buy fellow UK student-housing provider Liberty Living Group Plc for $1.8 billion in cash and shares.
Unite is buying the assets from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which will have a 20 percent stake in the group when the deal is completed in the third quarter,
according to a company statement. Unite proposed selling about 26.4 million new shares to help fund the purchase.
The acquisition will give Unite “an improved portfolio quality with higher exposure to larger cities,†Moody’s Investors Service said in a note.
It raised its outlook for Liberty Living to positive from stable on the news.
Unite shares rose as much as 2.7 percent on Wednesday in London.
Liberty Living’s bonds rose to a record.