TIDMESP
RNS Number : 0071M
Empiric Student Property PLC
25 April 2018
25 April 2018
Empiric Student Property plc
("Empiric" or the "Company" or, together with its subsidiaries,
the "Group")
RESULT OF AGM AND TRADING UPDATE
The Board of Empiric Student Property plc (ticker: ESP) (the
"Board"), the owner and operator of student accommodation across
the UK, announces that all resolutions proposed at the Company's
Annual General Meeting held on 24 April 2018 were duly passed as
set out below.
The Board is also pleased to provide the following trading
update:
Stuart Beevor, Acting Chairman, commented:
"We are very encouraged with the Company's on-going progress in
delivering financial and operational improvements across the
business. We look forward to being able to report further progress
in the near term, ahead of the announcement of the Company's
interim results in August 2018."
-- Bookings growing strongly: Bookings for the 2018/19 academic
year are currently 57% compared to 45% at the same time last year,
and up from 48% as announced by the Company on 21 March 2018. 7.50%
of beds in the Company's portfolio are let on nominations
agreements or leases with universities.
o Targeting occupancy of 97% for the 2018/19 academic year,
supported by an increased focus on the end to end sales
process.
-- Operating margin increasing: Significant progress made on
improving the operating margin in FY 2018 and on track to bring
cost-effective facilities management in-house in stages completing
in Q1 2019, with the first significant cost savings from Q4 2018 as
third party costs begin to fall away.
-- Administration expenses reducing: On track to achieve the
target of GBP10 million in FY 2018 for administration expenses, a
reduction of 26% on FY 2017.
-- Improving dividend cover: Significant progress made on
improving dividend cover which is expected to be approximately two
thirds covered by adjusted earnings in FY 2018 and fully covered in
FY 2019.
o Targeting a dividend of 5.0 pence per share for the year
ending 31 December 2018.
-- Non-executive Chairman: The Board has commenced a process to
identify a new non-executive Chairman and looks forward to making a
further announcement in due course.
In accordance with Listing Rule 9.6.2(R), a copy of the
resolutions passed at the Annual General Meeting will be submitted
to the National Storage Mechanism and will be available for
inspection at www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/NSM.
As at the date of the meeting, there were 602,887,740 ordinary
shares with voting rights in issue. Proxies were received by the
Company from shareholders at the meeting, as follows:
RESOLUTION FOR AGAINST WITHHELD
VOTES
----------------------------- --------------------- --------------------- -----------
VOTES % OF VOTES % OF
VOTES VOTES
CAST* CAST*
----------------------------- ------------ ------- ------------ ------- -----------
1. To receive the
Company's Annual
Report and Accounts
for the financial
period ended 31
December 2017 244,762,891 100.00 1,644 0.00 9,419
----------------------------- ------------ ------- ------------ ------- -----------
2. To approve the
Directors' Remuneration
Report 208,498,057 98.07 4,105,809 1.93 32,170,087
----------------------------- ------------ ------- ------------ ------- -----------
3. To re-appoint
BDO LLP as Auditors
of the Company 244,388,221 99.85 358,833 0.15 26,900
----------------------------- ------------ ------- ------------ ------- -----------
4. To authorise
the Directors to
determine the remuneration
of the Auditors 244,314,578 99.82 432,516 0.18 26,860
----------------------------- ------------ ------- ------------ ------- -----------
5. To authorise
the Directors to
declare and pay
all dividends as
interim dividends 244,324,444 99.82 444,171 0.18 5,339
----------------------------- ------------ ------- ------------ ------- -----------
6. To elect Lynne
Fennah as a Director
of the Company who,
having been appointed
as a Director by
the Board since
the last AGM 235,755,839 96.32 9,011,776 3.68 6,339
----------------------------- ------------ ------- ------------ ------- -----------
7. To re-elect Timothy
Attlee as a Director
of the Company 225,344,160 92.06 19,423,455 7.94 6,339
----------------------------- ------------ ------- ------------ ------- -----------
8. To re-elect Jim
Prower as a Director
of the Company 243,314,184 99.41 1,453,430 0.59 6,339
----------------------------- ------------ ------- ------------ ------- -----------
9. To re-elect Stephen
Alston as a Director
of the Company 137,937,459 57.62 101,457,542 42.38 5,378,952
----------------------------- ------------ ------- ------------ ------- -----------
10. To authorise
the Directors to
allot shares under
(section 551 of
the Companies Act
2006) 234,628,000 95.85 10,145,954 4.15 0
----------------------------- ------------ ------- ------------ ------- -----------
11. Special Resolution
- subject to the
passing of Resolution
10, the Directors
shall have the power
to allot equity
securities (pursuant
to sections 570
and 573 of the Companies
Act 2006) for cash 243,513,265 99.49 1,260,315 0.51 374
----------------------------- ------------ ------- ------------ ------- -----------
12. Special Resolution
- subject to the
passing of Resolution
10, the Directors
shall have the power
to allot equity
securities (pursuant
to sections 570
and 573 of the Companies
Act 2006) for cash
for the purpose
of financing an
acquisition or other
capital investment 211,389,764 86.36 33,383,815 13.64 374
----------------------------- ------------ ------- ------------ ------- -----------
13. Special Resolution
- authorise the
Company to make
market purchases
of own shares in
the Company 212,937,154 86.75 32,520,624 13.25 130,749
----------------------------- ------------ ------- ------------ ------- -----------
14. Special resolution
- that a general
meeting may be called
on not less than
14 clear days' notice 237,108,756 96.95 7,453,413 3.05 0
----------------------------- ------------ ------- ------------ ------- -----------
15. Articles 95.1
and 95.2 of the
Company's current
articles of association
be and are hereby
replaced in their
entirety 210,351,352 86.07 34,043,424 13.93 167,392
----------------------------- ------------ ------- ------------ ------- -----------
* Excludes votes withheld
The Board notes the significant proportion of votes which were
cast against the re-appointment of Stephen Alston and is aware of
the recommendation made by certain of the voting information
services against the re-appointment of Stephen Alston. Stephen
Alston is a partner of Real Estate Venture Capital Management LLP
("Revcap"), which is the Group's former joint venture partner. The
Group acquired Revcap's holding in the Willowbank joint venture on
31 March 2017 and paid fees to Revcap up to 30 June 2017. While
there is no longer a business relationship between the Group and
Revcap, in accordance with the UK Corporate Governance Code Stephen
will not be independent until 30 June 2020.
The Board regularly reviews the independence of all directors
and is satisfied that Stephen Alston is independently minded in his
approach in his role as a director of Empiric, providing
challenging, intellectual and thorough input to the Board which is
very much valued.
For further information on the Company, please contact:
Empiric Student Property (via Newgate below)
plc
Tim Attlee (Acting Chief
Executive Officer)
Lynne Fennah (Chief Financial
Officer)
Jefferies International Limited Tel: 020 7029 8000
Gary Gould
Stuart Klein
Newgate (PR Adviser) Tel: 020 7680 6550
James Benjamin Em: empiric@newgatecomms.com
Anna Geffert
Patrick Hanrahan
Leena Patel
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, direct-let, nominated or leased student accommodation
across the UK. Investing in both operating and development assets,
Empiric is a multi-niche student property company focused on, (i)
providing good quality first year accommodation managed through its
Hello Student(R) operating platform in partnership with
universities, (ii) offering a variety of second and third year
purpose built accommodation options for individual students and
those wanting a group living environment, and (iii) continuing to
expand the Group's existing premium, studio-led accommodation
portfolio which is attractive to international and postgraduate
students.
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 news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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