‘At the stock exchange, you enter a whole new reality’

‘The concept of an IPO was completely alien to me,’ recalls Christian Teunissen, Xior Student Housing's founder and CEO. Xior started in 2012 and has since grown into a European real estate player in the niche market of student housing. Its first success came when Teunissen purchased a large building in Antwerp and converted it into student rooms. He remembers a phone call with his bank at the time. ‘You do know that every entrepreneur is their own biggest enemy, right?’ they said, and then they asked him if he wanted a sounding board, someone who could help him by asking critical questions. ‘That person was Frederik Snauwaert, my account manager at that very same bank,’ Teunissen adds. ‘He came on board as our financial director and the rest is history.’

Teunissen and Snauwaert were introduced to the professional student housing market at a property trade show in London. The market in the United Kingdom was booming and much more professional. People there were already talking about a ‘new asset class’ at a time when the market in Belgium was still in its infancy. What they saw and learned about the student property market at this trade show inspired them to develop Xior into a European platform with an exclusive focus on student housing. A year later, Xior entered the Dutch market. In 2014, Snauwaert proposed going public. This was a turning point for the company, which made several major acquisitions and expanded into Spain and Portugal as well. ‘Going public was a very smart move,’ Yannick Huygens, Head of Corporate Banking at ABN AMRO Belgium, confirms. ‘Xior needed this extra capital to support its rapid growth, but also to increase its brand awareness and strengthen its reputation. Xior was able to raise money on the capital markets, which then convinced institutional investors on the bond market as well.’

As an entrepreneur, you suddenly find yourself in a completely different world. ‘You come into contact with parties you are not used to: institutional investors, other types of investors and banks,’ states Teunissen. ABN AMRO offers listed companies a comprehensive range of services to support them in this new reality. ‘For example, we give them better insight into their shareholder structure, organise the purchase of their own shares and digitalise their shareholder meetings.’

Xior has now also started operating in Germany, Poland, Sweden and Denmark. ‘The construction and management of student rooms is roughly the same in any country,’ Teunissen says. In 2022, Xior acquired sector peer Basecamp for almost one billion euros, only to see interest rates suddenly rise sharply, causing financing costs to skyrocket. This caused all real estate companies' share prices to plummet, including Xior's. Further growth plans were put on hold and the focus shifted to reducing the debt ratio and strengthening the balance sheet. ‘Unfortunately, we didn't have a crystal ball,’ Teunissen continues. ‘The acquisition was a great move, but the timing wasn't ideal. Fortunately, the banks continued to support us.’ Yannick Huygens emphasises the importance of their personal relationship with the bank. ’It is important to us to be close to our customers and to stay in touch regularly. Healthy companies can also face challenging situations, such as the coronavirus pandemic and interest rate hikes. When that happens, we offer tailor-made solutions, such as additional credit facilities and flexible repayment terms. We look beyond the short term. Sustainability is at the heart of our strategy. We also try to implement it as part of our customers' business models.’

As an entrepreneur, you cannot afford to miss the boat when it comes to sustainability, especially in the real estate sector. ‘From now on, new buildings will always need to have certain certificates, such as BREAAM and LEED,’ Teunissen adds. Banks such as ABN AMRO play a key role in this transition. ‘We provide advice and support our customers, including Xior, in setting up a green finance framework. This makes it easier for real estate companies to take out green loans. This helps them to make their portfolio more sustainable, and makes them more attractive to investors as well,’ Huygens says. Teunissen is optimistic about the future. ‘The student housing market remains tight. Demand far outstrips supply. We have recently completed a building with 280 units in Eindhoven. It was fully let in just a few hours.’