Ânima Educação, Brazilian real estate market investment fund manager VBI Real Estate and student housing provider Uliving will partner to develop and operate the portfolio, with an investment from VBI forecast of up to R$800 million (approximately US$155m) in the next seven years.

“This partnership is totally unprecedented and exclusive in Brazil”

“This partnership is totally unprecedented and exclusive in Brazil, we are offering our students the possibility of having a complete and innovative university experience, which will provide connections and learning that go beyond the classroom,” Marcelo Bueno, CEO of Ânima Educação, suggested.

“The proposal is totally in line with the company’s DNA in enabling our students to be in contact with what exists as most modern and innovative services in the educational market, contributing to their integral development.”

Global advisory firm BONARD, which is helping with consolidation, mergers and transactions in the sector,  operated as an exclusive advisor to Ânima Educação in this latest transaction.

The partners hope that the housing portfolio will “strengthen the care and attention” of Ânima Educação to its community of more than 330,000 students at 18 higher education institutions across 12 Brazilian states, as it seeks to offer a “complete university experience”.

Founded in 2012, Uliving currently has five assets in operation in the country.

“Our goal, since the beginning, was not only to offer an exclusive experience in an unexplored and not yet professionalized market, but also to promote the sense of community to young people in Brazil and around the world, stimulating the exchange of experiences in such an important phase of the student’s life – elements that help in the formation of the human being and the professional,” Uliving CEO and co-founder Juliano Antunes explained.

Housing options will cater for undergraduate, graduate, master’s and doctoral students, as well as to researchers and professors.

Eight brands feature in Ânima’s ecosystem including HSM, HSM University, EBRADI (Brazilian School of Law), Le Cordon Bleu (SP), SingularityU Brazil, Inspirali and Learning Village, the first hub of innovation and education in Latin America, in addition to the Anima Institute.