Securitizability.com

Norton Rose, the international law firm, has acted in relation to one of only a handful of securitisations involving student accommodation in Europe and the UK.

The firm has acted for the arranger, ING Barings, and for ING Lease (UK) Limited on a private placement securitisation involving two London student halls of residence owned and managed by the Shaftesbury Housing Association.

Vincent Keaveny, Norton Rose securitisation partner leading the deal, said: "We were delighted to have this opportunity to work with Rick Gambetta and his colleagues in ING's London-based securitisation team on a complex and innovative transaction. The security structure was analysed very carefully by Moody's in light of the changes to UK insolvency law that will shortly come into effect under the Enterprise Act 2002 and the tax treatment of each aspect of the transaction was also subject to close scrutiny. "

The accommodation is made available to students at the School of Oriental and African Studies and the London Institute.

The issuer, a special purpose vehicle called Unifinance 1 Limited (the Issuer), issued a single £18,000,000 tranche of secured notes (the Notes) that were rated A1 by Moody's. The Notes were placed with a single UK investor. The final maturity date of the Notes is 31 October 2031. The gross proceeds of the issue of the Notes were used by the Issuer to advance a loan to another special purpose entity which then entered into a lease and lease-back transaction with a member of the Shaftesbury group. The payments of principal and interest on the Notes are ultimately funded by the income generated by the two halls of residence.

Norton Rose has a strong track record in securitisations. The firm has advised on a number of innovative transactions including the first ever residential mortgage-backed transaction in Portugal and the synthetic securitisation of a £300,000,000 mortgage portfolio originated by Bristol & West.

The Norton Rose team comprised:
- Securitisation partner, Vincent Keaveny and his team, Jacqueline Cheng, Raj Singh and Daniel Hall advising ING Barings;

- Real estate partner, Robin Mitchell and associate, Heather Fox, with tax partner, Louise Higginbottom and associate, Judith Watson advising ING Lease (UK) Limited;

- Capital Markets partner, Christian Parker and associate Mawgan Harris advising the trustee, the Bank of New York; and

- Securitisation partner, Liz Jones and trainee Megan O'Leary also advising corporate services provider, SPV Management Limited.

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Norton Rose acts in innovative student accommodation securitisation