News
Warburg Pincus Invests in Leading Student Accommodation Provider Good Host Spaces Apr 22, 2021
Mumbai, India April 22, 2021 - Good Host Spaces Pvt. Ltd. (“Good Host”), India’s leading owner and operator of purpose-built, on-campus student housing assets, announced that Baskin Lake Investment Ltd (“Baskin Lake”), an affiliate of Warburg Pincus, a leading global private equity firm, has become a significant shareholder in the company through acquisition of HDFC Ltd.’s 24.48 percent stake along with a primary investment in the company. Existing shareholder Goldman Sachs and Baskin Lake will support the future growth of Good Host by investing additional capital to fund the company’s growth objectives.
Since its establishment in September 2017 as India’s first on-campus student housing platform, Good Host has grown rapidly to become India’s largest owner and operator of student accommodation assets, operating approximately 18,000 beds at highly ranked universities, such as Manipal University, O.P. Jindal Global University and Shoolini University. The company is also in conversations with several other prestigious institutes in India to expand its portfolio to 50,000 beds in the near term.
The higher education landscape in India has evolved significantly in the last few years with the establishment of several new high-quality private universities. The new National Education Policy will further improve the global competitiveness of Indian universities, which in turn will require high-quality, professionally-managed student housing facilities. This natural evolution will result in a significant growth of this asset class as seen in other developed countries.
Commenting on the investment from Warburg Pincus, Good Host CEO Nimesh Grover said, “We are delighted to welcome Warburg Pincus as a new investor in the company. We look forward to working closely with them and leveraging their global experience in creating market-leading real estate platforms. Good Host is confident that with Goldman Sachs and Warburg Pincus as our shareholders, our company will further strengthen its leadership position in this space and bring many more partner universities and students into our platform by providing contemporary student housing to live, learn and grow in a safe and secure environment.”
Anish Saraf, a Managing Director at Warburg Pincus India, said, “Good Host has had a remarkable journey since inception, from introducing the business model of operating student accommodation in partnership with universities in India, to scaling this platform to become the country’s largest student accommodation provider. This partnership delivers critical growth capital to universities helping them augment their educational capabilities while modernizing and introducing global best practices to the student housing assets. We look forward to partnering with Goldman Sachs, Nimesh and rest of the team in their next phase of growth.”
Som Krishna, a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, said, “Our founding investment was built upon the clear, immense gap between the demand and supply for good, quality on-campus student accommodation, which we have experience in funding and developing globally. Warburg Pincus’ addition to this partnership further validates the long-term thematic basis of our vision and Good Hosts’ value proposition in catering to the fundamental housing needs of today’s modern students.”
Goldman Sachs’ Investment Banking Division advised Good Host.
About Good Host Spaces
Good Host Spaces was set up by Nimesh Grover and Stanley D’britto in September 2017. It was initially backed by Goldman Sachs and HDFC Ltd. It is India’s largest on-campus third party Purpose Built Student Accommodation service provider with a presence in 5 cities.
About Warburg Pincus
Warburg Pincus LLC is a leading global growth investor. The firm has more than $60 billion in private equity assets under management. The firm’s active portfolio of more than 200 companies is highly diversified by stage, sector, and geography. Warburg Pincus is an experienced partner to management teams seeking to build durable companies with sustainable value. Founded in 1966, Warburg Pincus has raised 19 private equity funds, which have invested more than $90 billion in over 930 companies in more than 40 countries. The firm is headquartered in New York with offices in Amsterdam, Beijing, Berlin, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Mauritius, San Francisco, São Paulo, Shanghai, and Singapore.
Warburg Pincus has a proven track record as an experienced and successful investor in the real estate and education sectors. The firm has invested over USD 4 billion in Asian real estate companies, helping build successful businesses and leading brands such as Embassy Industrial Parks, Lemon Tree Hotels, Weave Living, ARA Asset Management, Princeton Digital Group, Vincom Retail, 7 Days Inn, ESR, Mofang Apartments and Nova. For more information please visit www.warburgpincus.com
About Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs is one of the world’s leading investors in alternative investments. With over 30 years of experience, we invest in the full spectrum of alternatives, including private equity, growth equity, credit, real estate, infrastructure, ESG, and absolute-return strategies. Our clients access these solutions through our direct proprietary strategies, customized strategic partnerships, and open-architecture programs. Our alternative investment teams represent over 1,000 professionals, across 31 offices around the world. We leverage the depth and breadth of global relationships across Goldman Sachs to identify investment opportunities, drawing on our firm-wide capital market insights, industry research, and risk management platforms. We extend these capabilities to the world’s leading pension plans, sovereign wealth funds, governments, financial institutions, endowments, foundations, family offices and individuals, for which we invest or advise on over $300 billion of alternative investments.
Media Contacts:
Good Host Spaces: Nimesh Grover, +91 9821352565, nimesh.grover@goodhostspaces.com
Goldman Sachs: Daylon DCruz +91 9820795501 ddcruz@webershandwick.com