TIDMESP
RNS Number : 3806A
Empiric Student Property PLC
02 February 2022
2 February 2022
Empiric Student Property plc
("Empiric" or the "Company" or, together with its subsidiaries,
the "Group")
BUSINESS AND TRADING UPDATE
Empiric Student Property plc (ticker: ESP), the owner and
operator of premium student accommodation across the UK, is pleased
to provide a business and trading update.
Duncan Garrood, Chief Executive Officer of Empiric Student
Property plc, said:
"We are pleased that our revenue occupancy for the academic year
2021/22 is towards the top end of our guidance at 84%, despite the
academic year being clearly impacted by the pandemic. We are also
encouraged by the start of our booking cycle for the forthcoming
academic year 2022/23.
We continue to make good progress in actively managing our
portfolio to recycle capital and drive returns for our
shareholders. With our latest disposal of a portfolio of five
assets for GBP26.5 million in line with the latest book value, we
have now sold a total of GBP44.6 million of non-core assets, with
ongoing discussions regarding further non-core property disposals.
We are also pleased to be pushing ahead with our outstanding
developments and that our planned refurbishment works are on track,
all of which will further improve the quality of our portfolio.
The Board continues to target a dividend of at least 2.5 pence
for the financial year 2022, all else remaining equal."
Academic years 2021/22 ("AY21/22") and 2022/23
We achieved a good performance at the start of AY21/22 and since
our announcement on 5 November 2021, revenue occupancy across our
portfolio has increased from 81% to 84% (AY20/21: 68%). This is at
the upper end of our guidance range provided on 12 August 2021 of
between 75% to 85% revenue occupancy for the AY21/22.
The Group currently has a greater proportion of UK domestic
students in its properties compared to pre-COVID levels, resulting
from our targeted marketing, and now representing 48% of bookings,
the balance being 26% Chinese and 26% other international. This
compares to our pre-pandemic breakdown of approximately one third
each for UK, Chinese and other international.
We are encouraged by the start of our booking cycle for the
forthcoming academic year 2022/23, and we expect strong demand from
both domestic and international students, supported by the ongoing
lifting of restrictions and opening up of international travel
.
Actively managing our portfolio
We continue to make good progress on actively managing our
portfolio to recycle capital and drive returns for our
shareholders.
We have completed the disposal of a portfolio of five non-core
assets in Leicester, Durham and Exeter for GBP26.5 million, which
is in line with the latest book value as at 31 December 2021. With
this disposal, the total value of assets we have sold is GBP44.6
million, and discussions regarding further non-core property
disposals are ongoing.
We are on target with our development in Bristol (153 beds) and
have commenced a development in Edinburgh (60 beds), which will
both complete in time for the start of the academic year
2022/23.
Dividends
We continue to expect to re-instate regular dividend payments
that will be fully covered and progressive in nature, and paid
quarterly, commencing in Q1 2022. The Board continues to target a
dividend of at least 2.5 pence for the financial year 2022, all
else remaining equal.
ESG
We are committed to creating and operating a responsible and
sustainable business, which has a positive impact on all of our
stakeholders. During 2020, we established a Board level ESG
Committee tasked with providing a roadmap to deliver a significant
step change in our approach to ESG. We will be setting out our ESG
strategy in our Annual Report in March 2022.
Full year results
We will report our full year results for the 12 months ended 31
December 2021 on Thursday, 3 March 2022. We will hold a Company
presentation for investors and analysts at 8:30am (GMT) on the day,
with further details to be announced in due course.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON THE COMPANY, PLEASE CONTACT:
Empiric Student Property plc (via Maitland/AMO below)
Duncan Garrood (Chief Executive Officer)
Lynne Fennah (Chief Financial & Operating
Officer)
Jefferies International Limited 020 7029 8000
Stuart Klein
Tom Yeadon
RBC Europe Limited (trading as RBC
Capital Markets) 020 7653 4000
Charlie Foster
Marcus Jackson
07747 113 930 / 020 7379
Maitland/AMO (Communications Adviser) 5151
James Benjamin empiric-maitland@maitland.co.uk
Alistair de Kare-Silver
The Company's LEI is 213800FPF38IBPRFPU87.
Further information on Empiric can be found on the Company's
website at www.empiric.co.uk .
Notes:
Empiric Student Property plc is a leading provider and operator
of modern, predominantly direct-let, premium student accommodation
located in high-demand university towns and cities across the UK.
Investing in both operating and development assets, Empiric is a
fully integrated operational student property business focused on
premium studio-led accommodation managed through its Hello
Student(R) operating platform, that is attractive to affluent
growing student segments.
The Company, an internally managed real estate investment trust
("REIT") incorporated in England and Wales, listed on the premium
listing segment of the Official List of the Financial Conduct
Authority and was admitted to trading on the main market for listed
securities of the London Stock Exchange in June 2014.
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END
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 02, 2022 01:59 ET (06:59 GMT)
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