Alignvest Student Housing Update

by on November 21, 2024 with No Comments
ALIGNVEST STUDENT HOUSING REIT UNITHOLDERS OVERWHELMINGLY APPROVE COMBINATION WITH FORUM REAL ESTATE AND IMPACT FUND

Toronto, Ontario (November 21, 2024) – Alignvest Student Housing Inc. (“ASH”) is pleased to announce that the unitholders (“Unitholders”) of Alignvest Student Housing Real Estate Investment Trust (“ASH REIT”) overwhelmingly approved the proposed combination with Forum Real Estate Income and Impact Fund (“REIIF”), with over 99% of the votes cast on the Resolutions by all Unitholders (as described further below) voting in favour.

At the special meeting of Unitholders held yesterday (the “Meeting”), the resolutions (“Resolutions”) approving the previously announced combination transaction and other transactions (the “Transactions”) contemplated in the Combination Agreement between, among others, ASH REIT and REIIF dated October 11, 2024 (as amended, supplemented or modified from time to time, the “Combination Agreement”) and the related agreement for the acquisition of ASH by Forum Real Estate Income and Impact LP dated October 11, 2024 (as amended, supplemented or modified from time to time), as well as ancillary matters related thereto, were passed.

The Resolutions were approved by: (i) 99.03% of the votes cast on the Resolutions by all Unitholders present in person or represented by proxy and entitled to vote at the Meeting; and (ii) 98.62% of the votes cast on the Resolutions by Unitholders present in person or represented by proxy and entitled to vote as part of the “majority of the minority” approval.

 

Closing Timeline and Next Steps

The Transactions are currently targeted to close before the end of 2024, subject to customary closing conditions. Competition Bureau clearance has been received for the Transactions.

In anticipation of and in order to facilitate the closing, ASH REIT intends to suspend ordinary course distributions for the months of November and December 2024, and accordingly, Unitholders’ participation in the distribution reinvestment plan will also be suspended for the months of November and December 2024. The value of distributions not paid out will be reflected in the amount of cash and number of units of REIIF received by Unitholders in exchange for their units of ASH REIT (“ASH REIT Units”), which will be higher than if distributions were not suspended, as determined in accordance with the Combination Agreement.

Based on preliminary results, it is estimated that Unitholders who have elected to redeem more than their pro rata entitlement for cash by submitting a duly completed Cash Redemption Offer Election Form will have 100% of the ASH REIT Units that they tendered for redemption redeemed. Such Unitholders may limit the number of their ASH REIT Units redeemed for cash by contacting ASH REIT prior to 5:00 p.m. (Toronto time) on November 27, 2024. Unitholders who reduce the number of ASH REIT Units redeemed for cash under the cash election will receive additional units of REIIF at closing.

Redemption and transfer requests received by ASH after yesterday are not expected to be processed before closing, and therefore are not expected to be fulfilled. Unitholders are reminded that if they requested a transfer or redemption of ASH REIT Units after October 1, 2024 or plan to request a transfer or redemption prior to the closing date it may result in the Unitholder’s cash election in respect of those ASH REIT Units being invalidated.

 

About Alignvest Student Housing Real Estate Investment Trust

ASH REIT was launched in 2018 to consolidate the fragmented, institutional grade, purpose-built student accommodation real estate sector across Canada. Over the past seven years, ASH REIT has built a high-quality portfolio of 17 properties with 7,159 beds across seven university-focused markets.

ASH REIT is an unincorporated open-ended real estate investment trust formed under the laws of Ontario pursuant to a Declaration of Trust to own income-producing purpose-built student accommodations located in Canada. ASH REIT offers trust units on a continuous basis pursuant to an offering memorandum on a private placement basis by qualified dealers to investors resident in any province or territory of Canada who qualify as “accredited investors”. ASH REIT has made arrangements to offer the units through the investment fund order system, Fundserv.

For more information about Alignvest Student Housing Real Estate Investment Trust, please visit: www.alignveststudenthousing.com.

 

About Forum Real Estate Income and Impact Fund

REIIF invests principally in institutional-quality, multi-family rental apartments, purpose-built student accommodations and furnished rentals located in supply constrained markets in Canada. REIIF also strives to deliver a sector-leading impact and ESG-driven portfolio designed to enhance yields and total returns, with a focus on maintaining diversity and resiliency of income.

For information about REIIF, please visit: www.forumreiif.ca.

 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Alignvest Student Housing Inc.
ashsubscriptions@alignvest.com

The information is based on the market analysis and expectations of ASH REIT and should not be relied upon by the reader as research or investment advice regarding ASH REIT. The information presented herein is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy in any jurisdiction where prohibited by law or where contrary to local law or regulation. Any such offer to invest, if made, will only be made by means of an offering memorandum on a private placement basis.

Alignvest Student Housing – Closing of Acquisitions

by on June 25, 2024 with No Comments

We are pleased to announce that we have completed the acquisition of two purpose-built student accommodation assets located at 252 and 254 Phillip Street, Waterloo, Ontario (known as Hespeler House and Fergus House, respectively).

Hespeler House and Fergus House are each 21-storey student housing buildings with 476 beds in fully furnished four-bedroom/four-bathroom suites. The properties are steps away from the University of Waterloo and within walking distance from Wilfrid Laurier University. The properties have amenities which include fitness rooms, study rooms, a fully enclosed theatre room, games rooms, a basketball court, underground parking, bicycle parking, and on-site laundry.

With the closing of these acquisitions, Alignvest Student Housing REIT has completed four transactions in the first half of 2024 totaling 1,705 beds and $384 million. We are excited to further solidify our position in Waterloo and believe these assets will benefit from the scale we have in the market. Hespeler House and Fergus House are strategically located near the University of Waterloo, whereas our other assets in Waterloo primarily serve students attending Wilfrid Laurier University. In total, we now provide housing for over 6,900 students in six major higher-education markets across Canada.

Below is the link to the full press release.

Press Release

 

Alignvest Student Housing

by on May 28, 2024 with No Comments

COMPLETION OF ACQUISITION OF 308 KING IN WATERLOO, ONTARIO

We are pleased to announce that we have completed the previously-announced transaction to acquire a residential property located at 308 King Street North, Waterloo, Ontario (“308 King”).

308 King is a newly constructed, 25-storey building with 340 furnished units, providing housing for 659 students. The property is located within walking distance of both Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo. The property offers on-site laundry, rooftop terraces with barbeques and lounge areas, an above-grade parking garage and bicycle parking. There is over 8,500 square feet of ground floor commercial space.

With the addition of 308 King, Alignvest Student Housing REIT will own a portfolio that provides housing for over 5,900 students across 14 properties in six university-focused Canadian markets. We are excited to have built a high-quality portfolio of student housing valued at over $1 billion in less than six years since our launch in June 2018, and we have several additional growth initiatives planned for 2024.

Below is the link to the full press release.

Press Release

May 2024 Information Sheet

Alignvest Student Housing Acquisition

by on April 22, 2024 with No Comments
ACQUISITION OF HIGH-QUALITY ASSET IN WATERLOO, ONTARIO

We are pleased to announce that we have entered into a binding contract to purchase a residential property located at 308 King Street North, Waterloo, Ontario (“308 King”).

308 King is a newly constructed, 25-storey building with 340 furnished units, providing housing for 659 students. The property is located within walking distance of both Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo. The property offers on-site laundry, rooftop terraces with barbeques and lounge areas, an above-grade parking garage and bicycle parking. There is over 8,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space.

With the addition of 308 King, Alignvest Student Housing REIT will own a portfolio that provides housing for almost 6,000 students across 14 properties in six university-focused Canadian markets.

The acquisition is scheduled to close in May 2024. Below is the link to the full press release announcing the acquisition of 308 King.

 

Press Release - 308 King Acquisition

April 2024 Information Sheet

Student Housing Acquitistion

by on March 5, 2024 with No Comments

ACQUISITION OF HIGH-QUALITY STUDENT HOUSING ASSET IN OTTAWA, ONTARIO

We are pleased to announce the acquisition of a purpose-built student accommodation asset located at 417 Nelson Street, Ottawa, Ontario (“417Nelson”).

417Nelson is a modern 4-storey building with 94 beds in 53 fully furnished units. The property is in close proximity to our other Ottawa properties, which allows for operational efficiencies and enables us to continue to provide high-quality accommodation to students in the area. With this acquisition, we were able to assume attractive in-place CMHC financing which has a below-market interest rate of 2.32% and over six years of remaining term.

With the addition of 417Nelson, Alignvest Student Housing REIT now owns a portfolio of over 5,300 beds across 13 properties in six university-focused Canadian markets.

 

Below is the link to the full press release announcing the acquisition of 417Nelson.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Press Release - 417Nelson Acquisition February 2024 Information Sheet

Change is Coming – Always Improving

by on February 7, 2024 with No Comments

At MFG, our Mission Statement is to be “Always improving”. Over the past 15 months, we have been refining the process of how we can better deliver our investment platform to our clients. Utilizing partnerships and data collected over the years, we’ve come up with a solution that we believe will improve our investment platform and improve our clients overall experience with MFG.

What is Changing?

We are transitioning to an investment model platform. Working with your Portfolio Manager, it will be determined which model is appropriate for you. Once this has been determined, you will own one or more of the new MFG Investment Models – Aggressive, Growth, and/or Balanced. These new Model Funds are built using the best investment managers and strategies that our team has researched. The platform utilizes the same investment philosophies of delivering an institutional quality portfolio to our clients.

The Benefits to our Clients

1. Increased Performance

    – Via enhanced portfolio construction and efficient management capabilities

2. Time spent with your Portfolio Manager

   – Spend more time focusing on other value add areas of your financial lives – IE: financial planning, insurance analysis, tax work, etc.

3. Communication will be improved through detailed Quarterly Reports

   – These reports will include facts about the Model Fund, general market commentary and additional information that our PM Division finds relevant to our clients

 

When to Expect the Change – April 1st, 2024

We are very excited to be able to deliver this new and improved platform to our clients. There has been a lot of work put in by our team to get us to this point. As we approach April 1st, you can expect to receive multiple communication pieces from our team diving into deeper details on the upcoming changes. If you have any questions on the upcoming change and what it might look like for you personally, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your MFG Portfolio Manager.

We want to thank you for your continued trust and support of MFG. Without you, none of this would be possible.

Stay tuned.

 

PDF Version

Alignvest – Management Report

by on February 7, 2024 with No Comments
Management Report – December 31, 2023

We are pleased to send you Alignvest Student Housing Real Estate Investment Trust’s Q4 2023 Management Report. 2023 was a successful year for the REIT. We started the year with a flagship property acquisition in Halifax, which expanded our presence into Eastern Canada. Our entire portfolio has delivered strong operating performance, resulting in a 21.4% return to Class F shareholders (with DRIP participation). With the growth in NOI, our portfolio is valued at $961.8 million, an increase of over 15% over the year.

The macroeconomic environment was more stable in the second half of 2023, with inflation decreasing to 4.0% or below since May and the 5-year GoC bond yield dropping over 25% since the end of Q3. We spent much of 2023 focused on building our acquisition and investment pipeline to be ready when deals became actionable. In Q4, with a robust pipeline, we were able to re-open the REIT for subscriptions. We appreciate everyone’s patience with us as we needed more visibility on our ability to put capital to work before taking in additional cash from subscriptions.

In Q4, we completed our equity investment in the partnership that acquired 149 College Street, a 43,118 square foot building in Toronto, steps away from the University of Toronto. We also entered into a contract to acquire a student housing property in a market where we already have operations, with an expected closing date in Q1 2024. In addition, we are in due diligence on multiple additional opportunities.

Our 2024 pre-leasing season is off to a strong start. We are already almost 60% pre-leased at our privately-managed properties for September 2024 and are projecting a 15.1% gap-to-market on sitting rents when compared to budgeted September 2024 lease rates.

Over the past several weeks, the Canadian government has issued new rules and caps applicable to international students. In particular, the focus seems to be targeted to colleges, where we have no exposure. As we stated in our response (link below), we do not believe these changes will have a material impact on our portfolio.

We are expecting to deliver strong performance in 2024 given our market leading position and our strong business fundamentals.  With a strong acquisition pipeline in front of us, we are actively raising capital to pursue these opportunities. The future looks strong, and we are confident in our strategy and the corresponding returns for our investors.

 

Below is the link to our Q4 2023 Management Report.

 

Q4 2023 Management Report Our Response to Canada's Cap on International Students

Alignvest Student Housing – Q3 2023 Management Report

by on November 1, 2023 with No Comments
SEPTEMBER 30, 2023 – MANAGEMENT REPORT

We are pleased to send you Alignvest Student Housing Real Estate Investment Trust’s Q3 2023 Management Report. We have had another successful leasing season, with current occupancy exceeding 99% and strong growth in rents on turnover beds. Interestingly, we had about 42% turnover this year, which means that we are expecting strong rent growth again next year when some of this year’s renewing tenants end their leases. We have a rental gap-to-market of $5.0 million and are targeting to deliver $42.5 million of NOI in the 2023/2024 academic year.

We continue to monitor and effectively manage our capital structure to optimize our returns. We have an attractive loan-to-value ratio of 46.5% on our mortgage debt, with a weighted average interest rate of 3.47% and staggered maturity dates. With the growth in our property values, we remain confident that we will be able to effectively refinance our maturing debt in 2024 and 2025.

As previously communicated, we temporarily closed the REIT for new investments in May 2023. We did this primarily because of the stalemate we were seeing in the market. While we continued to evaluate investment opportunities, there were substantial gaps between vendor asking prices and the price we were willing to bid. In addition, the debt markets were quite challenging to predict, making it difficult to underwrite investments.

We are now starting to see some attractive opportunities become available, where there is either attractive in-place debt (that can be assumed), the transaction can be completed at a price that delivers an attractive return for our REIT, or the opportunity is highly strategic. We also expect that several opportunities will become available at attractive prices over the next year or so, as highly leveraged vendors need to refinance properties at current interest rates. We want to be ready to act on these opportunities. Accordingly, we are pleased to announce that we will re-open the REIT for investments effective immediately, for the next monthly closing date as of November 30, 2023.

We are pleased to have delivered an annualized return of 12.5% since inception. We are also excited about our future growth, which continues to look strong, both from organic growth within our portfolio and from future investments. We are grateful for your continued support.

Below are the links to our Q3 2023 Management Report and Q3 2023 Financial Statements. We have also included the press release announcing our re-opening. Please contact us if you have any questions or need additional information.

Management Report

 

Press Release - October 2023

 

Financial Statements

 

See-More, at 1400 Seymour Street in Halifax, Nova Scotia, consists of 491 beds adjacent to Dalhousie University.

See-More is at 100% occupancy for the 2023/2024 academic year

Alignvest Student Housing – Update

by on June 29, 2023 with No Comments

Alignvest Student Housing (“Alignvest”) is pleased to announce an increase in the Fair Market Value (“FMV”) of the Units of Alignvest Student Housing Real Estate Investment Trust (“ASH REIT”) to $134.00 per Class F Unit and $130.83 per Class A Unit (collectively, the “Unit”) as at June 30, 2023.

Additionally, ASH REIT’s Board of Trustees have approved ASH REIT’s Monthly Distribution of $0.50 per Unit ($6.00 per Unit on annual basis), effective June 30, 2023, for unitholders of record as of June 1, 2023.

Please refer to the press release for additional information.

Press Release
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