Activist hedge fund Saba Capital Management has built a significant economic interest in UK student accommodation provider Unite Group, raising the prospect of another campaign by Boaz Weinstein’s firm against a London-listed company, according to a report by The Times.
The report cites unnamed people familiar with the matter as revelling that Saba is understood to have accumulated exposure equivalent to as much as 4% of Unite’s shares through financial derivatives. The US-based hedge fund is believed to have begun building the position during the spring.
The firm’s intentions remain unclear, although the investment comes as Unite faces mounting pressure from a weaker student housing market and a sharp decline in its share price.
Saba and Unite both reportedly declined to comment.
The position adds Unite to a growing list of UK companies attracting attention from Saba, which has increasingly pursued activist campaigns aimed at unlocking value from businesses it considers undervalued.
The hedge fund is currently seeking sweeping changes at Workspace, the London-listed office landlord. Saba has called for the removal of all of Workspace’s non-executive directors, the sale of its portfolio of 56 buildings and the return of proceeds to shareholders.
One industry source said Saba was expected to increase pressure on Unite but was currently focused on the Workspace campaign.
Unite, Britain’s largest student accommodation provider, operates rooms for approximately 72,000 students. The company benefited significantly in the years following the Covid-19 pandemic as a shortage of university accommodation and a return to in-person learning allowed it to raise rents and occupancy, particularly among international students.
That favourable backdrop has weakened over the past year. Unite has repeatedly reduced its forecasts for occupancy and rental growth, while its shares have fallen by roughly one-third over the past 12 months.
The stock now trades at an estimated 43% discount to the value of the company’s property portfolio. Unite was also removed from the FTSE 100 towards the end of 2025.
The UK student housing market has faced a combination of increased supply in some university cities, tighter visa rules affecting international postgraduate demand and a growing number of domestic students choosing to remain at home to reduce living costs.
Universities have consequently reduced the number of rooms they commit to booking from Unite, while the company has cut rents in some markets, including Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield, to attract students.
Unite is responding by concentrating its roughly £9bn portfolio on accommodation linked to higher-tariff universities. It is seeking to sell as much as £400m of assets and land near lower-ranked institutions, with some of the proceeds being used for share buybacks.
In May, Unite sold a 571-bed property near London’s St Pancras station for £186m to its own Unite UK Student Accommodation Fund, in which it holds a 32% stake. Analysts have argued that further sales to external buyers may be necessary to demonstrate the underlying value of the portfolio to investors.
The combination of a wide discount to asset value, pressure on operating performance and an activist investor with a record of pushing for structural change could make Unite a natural candidate for further engagement by Saba.
