Residential development
UNION is making a commitment to the residential development sector, and establishing a new management company together with Norwegian residential development specialist Baard Schumann to run the new residential development fund being launched in October 2022.
This fund will acquire and develop sites, areas of land and buildings with a substantial development potential, primarily for residential purposes, in and around the largest cities in Scandinavia.
Its portfolio composition could include options for site purchase, joint ventures with other players, or the acquisition of development projects in various phase of the planning process at the time the investment is made.
Residential development
Manager: UNION Residential Development Management AS
Target group: Professional investors
URD
Fund: UNION Residential Development
Launched: 2022
Fund size: Target NOK 2.5 bn
Phase: Under establishment
Market: Scandinavia
Baard Schumann
Baard Schumann will lead the new management company. Together with the team at UNION, he will build further on his experience from more than 20 years as the CEO of large housing developers such as Selvaag Bolig and Nordr.
He headed Selvaag Bolig from 2008 to 2012. During this period, the company made a number of acquisitions before being listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange in 2012. Under Schumann’s leadership, it expanded its portfolio from 3 000 to 11 000 homes. Schumann played a key role in the Selvaag Bolig listing, and the company delivered an annual return of 18 per cent to investors over the six following years.
During 2020-21, Schumann took the initiative on and headed the acquisition of Veidekke Eiendom AS (now Nordr AS), which had a land bank of 17 000 units in Norway and Sweden. He played a key role in structuring the acquisition and negotiating its financing.
After the company had been acquired, Schumann initiated a financial restructuring through a NOK 1.7 billion bilateral sale and buyback agreement for Norwegian sites with one of Norway’s leading life insurance companies. This substantially improved financial capacity, and value-adjusted equity rose from NOK 2.6 billion at the acquisition date to about NOK 6.5 billion in the autumn of 2021.
Schumann’s earlier appointments include CEO of NCC Bolig and marketing vice president at PEAB Bolig.
