Think of poor Mark Allan on December 17. The chief executive of student housing group Unite will be resting at the South Pole, having spent a week or more dragging himself across Antarctica.
Not that the boss of the £1.3 billion Bristol-based company is poor. The £40,000 cost of the trek will come from the £813,000 he earned last year. He aims to raise £75 000 via the Just Giving website for a cancer centre.
Otherwise, Allan’s efforts are directed at London. A £330 million deal was struck with the Singapore government wealth fund in September. “This allows us to increase our presence in London,” he said at the time. “We expect to have over 13,000 bedrooms within five years.”
On Tuesday, he listed the 1350 rooms already built at profits of 37% to 53% — and talked of 2000 more in Stratford and Camberwell.
Why London? First, safety: “This is no longer a market where you build it and they will come. Student numbers are down by 55,000 this year.”
Second, experience. “They say you can’t properly manage until you’ve been through a recession,” says Allan, who was just 36 in 2008. “My worst moment was being told we had £30 million with Landsbanki the day it went bust.”
Unite lost £5.4 million in 2008 but profits were £14.4 million in the six months to June. Debt has been halved to £500 million. London will be the profit focus for Allan when he gets back — just before Christmas, weather permitting.
