Empiric announces dividend as revenue and income increases
Empiric Student Property has announced a dividend of 2.5p per share and an increase in its portfolio valuation of 6.2%, nine months after it axed co-founder and chief executive Paul Hadaway after a spike in administration costs.
In its results for the six months to June, it said its property portfolio value was £945.2m, a 3% like-for-like increase on December 2017, while revenue increased 28% to 31.3m.
Empiric issued warnings about dividends in November 2017 after running costs of its portfolio increased.
Empiric Student Property has announced a dividend of 2.5p per share and an increase in its portfolio valuation of 6.2%, nine months after it axed co-founder and chief executive Paul Hadaway after a spike in administration costs.
In its results for the six months to June, it said its property portfolio value was £945.2m, a 3% like-for-like increase on December 2017, while revenue increased 28% to 31.3m.
Empiric issued warnings about dividends in November 2017 after running costs of its portfolio increased.
In the half year to June, it said expenses were down to £4.9m, which is on course to meet its full year target of £10m, while gross margin has increased to 62.3% from 60.4%.
Stuart Beevor, acting non-executive chairman, said: “As the operational transformation takes effect, and the financial results reflect that transformation, management is able to extend its focus to the further enhancement of NAV growth.
“This will be achieved through deploying the proceeds of the sale of non-core assets into development and forward funding projects in our core locations.
“Our TR target remains at 10% p.a. based on our expectations for the performance of our stabilised operating portfolio and development programme.”
Empiric said it was making a wide range of other operational improvements, including rationalising staff numbers in its management brand Hello Student®, refocusing marketing spend and bringing administration of utilities in-house.
Booking for the new academic year is at 87% and Empiric said it was on track for full occupancy of 97% for the 2018/19 academic year.
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