The news that US VC fund Blackstone is the main sponsor of January’s Guardian HE conference, has sent a shiver through several UK VCs who have been tracking possible education investments. Many had missed the fact that Blackstone has already entered the UK market via its £95m investment in a tower block of student accommodation near Kings Cross. Unite are the largest investor in the UK student accommodation market, but Blackstone are looking to build an international student accommodation portfolio with sites being looked at in the US, Japan, China, Australia, Italy, France and Germany as well as several other sites in the UK.

Blackstone’s approach to student accommodation highlights their real point of difference to most of the UK VCs. The latter can normally only invest in UK and occasionally European-based businesses. Blackstone has an international perspective with the funds to do deals everywhere. The competition should spur local VCs to improve their strategies for the education market.

www.blackstone.com