REG - Empiric Student Prop - Business and Trading Update

Empiric Student PropertyAnnouncement

04/06/2025 07:00

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RNS Number : 2699L  Empiric Student Property PLC  04 June 2025

 

 

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,
studio-led student accommodation aligned to top-tier universities across the
UK, is pleased to provide a business and trading update as at 4 June 2025.

 

Highlights

 

·     Pace of reservations for academic year 2025/26 remains comfortably
ahead of the wider market providing encouragement that our portfolio will
again be effectively full

·    Like for like growth in average weekly rents expected to exceed
inflation at 4 - 5% for academic year   2025/26

·   Placing proceeds earmarked for acquisitions fully deployed following
the acquisition of Selly Oak     Apartments in Birmingham, with the
roll-out of our Postgraduate exclusive product ahead of plan

·      Another strong and improving re-booker rate for the academic year
starting in September

 

Duncan Garrood, Chief Executive Officer of Empiric Student Property plc, said:

"Despite market and policy dynamics, the business remains in great shape, with
customer satisfaction underpinning an improving re-booker rate. Like other
PBSA operators, we are experiencing a normalisation in our sales pattern, with
a later booking profile than that we've experienced in more recent post
pandemic years. The attractiveness of the UK's Higher Education sector
continues to drive strong demand for PBSA, particularly toward higher-tariff
University cities to which we are primarily aligned. It is this dynamic that
provides confidence we will again deliver rental growth ahead of inflation.

 

Following the Company's share placing in the Autumn, we are pleased to report
that deployment is progressing ahead of plan with prospective returns aligning
with the commitments made. We are also making good progress on the two
exciting planning consents recently achieved, which should unlock value in
2026 and beyond."

 

Academic year 2025/26

Following the return to a more normalised sales pattern, wherein recent years
bookings cycles have progressed significantly faster than the long-term
average, reservations remain behind those achieved for the 2024/25 academic
year at 65 per cent. Given this later booking pattern, the impact of dynamic
pricing has been more muted relative to this point last year.

Based on market data available from StuRents, our occupancy rate continues to
outperform the wider market month on month and we therefore continue to
anticipate achieving an occupancy rate of 97 per cent or better with the
delivery of like for like rental growth comfortably in excess of inflation at
between four and five per cent.

To date, the year has seen another strong re-booker performance with over 60
per cent of those eligible to re-book choosing to do so, which is another
tangible endorsement of customer satisfaction and the value inherent in our
offer and service proposition.

 

Portfolio management

The April 2025 acquisition of Selly Oak Apartments in Birmingham completed the
deployment of the placing proceeds which had been earmarked for acquisition
opportunities.

 

Good progress continues to be made on the deployment of proceeds allocated to
the roll out of our Postgraduate exclusive product. Three newly converted and
refurbished schemes in Bath, Sheffield and Southampton are on plan to open in
September 2025, ahead of target. College House in Bristol is scheduled to open
in early 2026, following planning consent achieved earlier this year for the
conversion of this former office block into a 57-bed, all-studio student
accommodation scheme exclusively for Postgraduates.

In January we announced that Manchester City Council had granted detailed
planning permission for the comprehensive redevelopment and reconfiguration of
our Victoria Point site, allowing us to increase the current provision of beds
by 310.

 

Preparatory work has been ongoing to optimise the delivery of the consent
achieved and facilitate a phased implementation plan, which at this point is
anticipated to begin in late 2026. The scheme's Section 106 agreement has been
agreed in line with policy provision and funding options are currently being
explored, with a good degree of lender appetite evident.

The last of the Group's non-core properties is under offer and progressing
toward sale. Although not a strategic imperative, we will continue to dispose
of properties that are non-aligned to top-tier Universities as market
opportunities and pricing allows, ensuring shareholder value is maximised at
all times.

Debt & liquidity

 

As at 31 March 2025, pro forma EPRA LTV was 27.7 per cent (based on 31
December 2024 valuations), with cash and available facilities of £73.6
million.

 

The weighted average cost of drawn debt was 4.5 per cent. The weighted average
term to maturity stood at 4.5 years, with the next material refinancing due in
2028.

 

Dividends

Alongside our full year results in March 2025, we set out our expectation of
meeting a minimum full year dividend of 3.7 pence per share for 2025. Today we
have declared our first quarter dividend of 0.925 pence per share, in line
with this target.

 

ENDS

 

 

 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON THE COMPANY, PLEASE CONTACT:

 Empiric Student Property plc                                 (via FTI Consulting below)
 Duncan Garrood (Chief Executive Officer)
 Donald Grant (Chief Financial & Sustainability Officer)

 FTI Consulting

 Dido Laurimore                                               020 3727 1000

 Eve Kirmatzis                                                empiric@fticonsulting.com (mailto:empiric@fticonsulting.com)

The Company's LEI is 213800FPF38IBPRFPU87.

 

Further information on Empiric can be found on the Company's website at
www.empiric.co.uk (http://www.empiric.co.uk/) .

 

Notes:

Empiric Student Property plc is a leading provider and operator of modern,
predominantly direct-let, premium student accommodation serving key UK
universities. 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 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. The Company is classified as a commercial company listed under
chapter 6 of the UK Listing rules and as such is not an alternative investment
fund ("AIF") for the purposes of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers
Directive ("AIFMD") and is not required to provide investors with a Key
information Document ("KID") in accordance with the Packaged Retail and
Insurance-based Investment Products ("PRIIPs") regulations.

 

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