GIC, Macquarie buy majority stake in Australian student accommodation firm Iglu

SINGAPORE, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte Ltd Href="NewsSearch">GIC.UL and Macquarie Capital have formed a joint venture which has bought a majority stake in Iglu, an Australian student accommodation provider with a property portfolio worth about $132 million.

The deal is the largest of its kind in the Australian student accommodation sector, GIC said in a statement, without disclosing the investment value. Macquarie Capital is a unit of Macquarie Group Ltd MQG.AX .

Iglu - a specialist developer, operator and owner of purpose built off-campus student accommodation - has a real estate portfolio of approximately A$150 million ($132 million), comprising over 900 beds across three properties in Sydney and Brisbane.

GIC and Macquarie Capital said further funding will be committed to build additional Iglu-managed properties that are close to educational institutions and public transport.

GIC, the bigger of Singapore's two state funds, has been a far more active investor than Temasek Holdings Pvt Ltd Href="NewsSearch">TEM.UL in recent months.

Earlier this month GIC partnered a group of investors to buy $1.3 billion worth of Manhattan office space from Time Warner Inc TWX.N , its second major real estate deal in the developed world less than a month.

($1 = 1.1399 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)

((Saeed.Azhar@thomsonreuters.com)(+65-64035664)(Reuters Messaging: saeed.azhar.reuters.com@reuters.net))

Keywords: GIC AUSTRALIA/