UNITE SIGNS JOINT VENTURE WIT

RNS Number : 5831O

Unite Group PLC

10 March 2009

 



10 March 2008

UNITE SIGNS JOINT VENTURE WITH CONNAUGHT

New partnership providing maintenance services will create significant cost savings and service improvements across the UK

The UNITE Group plc ('UNITE' / 'Group / Company'), the UK's leading developer and manager of student accommodation, announces that it has signed a joint venture agreement with Connaught, the integrated services provider, creating UNITE Connaught Services ('UCS'), which will be responsible for providing reactive and planned maintenance services across the UNITE managed estate. As well as providing an improved service to customers, UNITE expects the Joint Venture to help generate cost savings of approximately £2 million per annum for the Group.

The new partnership takes effect from the beginning of May and forms part of the Company's operational Blueprint programme, which is targeting total costs savings of £10 million across UNITE's operational portfolio. As part of the programme, the Company has looked at ways to ensure that all support functions are closely aligned to the operational business, with core processes tailored entirely around the needs of customers. 

The partnership with Connaught was initiated in 2008, with a trial across London, which led to improved service delivery and significantly reduced costs within UNITE's reactive and planned maintenance works. With clear service level agreements in place during the trial, first time fixes on maintenance call-outs doubled, with planned maintenance benefiting from improved infrastructure and IT platforms, leading to improved employee productivity.

John Tonkiss, UNITE's Chief Operating Officer, said:

'The partnership has been set up to align our support functions directly with customer requirements. UCS will deliver a high level of service to our customers, who will benefit from improved technical and maintenance support. We are delighted to be working with Connaught, who we selected as our partner due to their extensive facilities management experience and developed service proposition and IT platforms.  

'The partnership will allow us to develop on our collective capabilities with the benefit of expanding the Joint Venture in the future, to create additional income streams through other contracts outside of the UNITE portfolio.'

Mark Davies, Chief Executive, Connaught plc, commented:

'We are delighted to be entering into this partnership with UNITE and are excited about the opportunity to work together and deliver a high quality integrated property management and maintenance solution for the student accommodation market.'

For further details please contact:

Amanda Williams                                                                                                           T: 0207 902 5067

UNITE Group                                                                                      [e-mail]

Stephanie Highett / Rachel Drysdale / Laurence Jones                                                      T: 020 7831 3113

Financial Dynamics

About UNITE Group

UNITE Group is the UK's largest developer and manager of student accommodation, with a business model that focuses on being a developer and co-investing asset manager. In the 08/09 academic year, UNITE Group will operate accommodation for some 36,700 customers throughout 23 key university towns and cities across England, Wales and Scotland.  UNITE Group undertakes the planning, development and management of sites, often working closely with the universities and colleges, in order to deliver high quality, well-located student accommodation at affordable prices in strong higher education markets.

Together with its development pipeline, UNITE Group manages a property portfolio valued at c. £2.9 billion on completion. UNITE Group's strategy, set out at the beginning of 2007, aims to double the size of its UK business by 2012.

With student rents resilient to economic cycles, and the continued growth in student numbers, especially from overseas, UNITE Group developments typically show high occupancy levels in a market where there is a general shortage of quality supply.

Founded in 1991, UNITE Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange (UTG) and is a FTSE 250 company.

UNITE UK Student Accommodation Fund

UNITE Group established a £1 billion UNITE UK Student Accommodation Fund at the end of 2006. The Fund was initiated with the principal objectives:

• to release capital that is tied up in mature, stabilised investment assets for investment into higher added value development activity;

• to provide UNITE Group with more growth capital in the medium term;

• to diversify UNITE Group's sources of income by providing a new, valuable revenue stream arising from management fees from the Fund; and

• to provide financial returns to investors in the Fund.

The Fund helped transform UNITE Group's business model to that of a developer of new purpose-built student accommodation and manager of funds which own student accommodation properties operated by UNITE Group and in which the Company has a significant minority stake.

See our websites:

Investors and corporate: www.unite-group.co.uk  

Students: www.unite-students.com

Graduates: www.livocity.co.uk

 

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