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(Alliance News) - Empiric Student Property PLC on Thursday confirmed it is recommencing dividend payments as demand for rooms continues to grow despite restrictions on students arriving from China.
The London-based real estate investment trust for student accommodation said it has achieved a good performance at the start of the academic year, with 81% revenue occupancy across its portfolio, up from 70% last year. Empiric Student Property said it has collected 98% of rent due this term.
In addition, the company said it continued to see a pipeline of additional bookings with a start date in January 2022 onwards from both direct-let customers as well as universities, with whom several discussions are already underway.
The company warned, however, that travel restrictions continue to hurt demand from China and some of its other international markets, where record numbers of new undergraduate students have not yet fully translated into bookings.
Empiric Student Property said it will now make dividend payments, which we suspended in March 2020 due to the Covid pandemic. A payment planned for December 3 of 2.5 pence is comprised of a distribution of 1p per share for calendar 2019 and 1.5p for 2020.
Regular dividend payments are expected to be re-instated from 2022, the company said, with a dividend of at least 2.5p per share to be paid for calendar 2022, up from guidance of 1.5p given in August. Empiric made no comment on plans for a dividend related to 2021, either on Thursday or in August.
Empiric Student Property shares were trading 4.6% higher in London on Thursday at 89.50 pence each.
By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com
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