(Alliance News) - Empiric Student Property PLC on Thursday upped its annual dividend, despite seeing a drop off in profit.
In 2023, the London-based student accommodation operator said revenue jumped 10% to GB80.5 million from GBP73.0 million a year earlier.
However, pretax profit fell to GBP53.4 million from GBP67.7 million.
This was primarily due to a slowdown in property price growth. Empiric's change in fair value of investment property fell to GBP30.1 million from GBP45.6 million.
On the back of the results, Empiric upped its dividend by 27% to 3.5 pence from 2.75p a year ago. It said that the dividend is ahead of the company's initial target.
For 2024, the company is targetting a minimum dividend of 3.5p again for 2024.
Chief Executive Officer of Duncan Garrood said: "During what has been another record year for the company, we have delivered strong rental growth and filled our rooms earlier than ever before. Customer satisfaction improved further and continues to be amongst the highest in the sector with our Hello Student brand awarded Platinum Operator certification by the industry-recognised Global Student Living."
Shares in Empiric were up 0.6% to 94.60 pence each in London on Thursday morning.
By Sophie Rose, Alliance News senior reporter
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Empiric (ESP)