(Alliance News) - Empiric Student Property PLC on Thursday said it swung to an interim loss with revenue taking a hit from Covid-19.
In the six months to June 30, revenue fell 4.8% to GBP34.0 million from GBP35.7 million a year earlier. The student accommodation provider swung to a pretax loss of GBP14.4 million from a GBP28.8 million profit.
This was due to Empiric posting a GBP26.2 million loss in fair value of investment properties, compared to a GBP15.7 million gain in the first half of 2019.
EPRA net asset value per share fell 3.3% to 106.6 pence from 110.2p at the end of December.
Empiric said GBP7.2 million in rent was foregone to students who opted to leave their tenancy early. This represented 10% of contracted revenue for the 2019-20 academic year.
Before the foregone rent, like-for-like rental growth during the academic year was 3.1%.
Empiric's dividend was cut by 50% to 1.25p from 2.50p.
"The attractive fundamentals of increasing structural demand from both domestic and international students for premium, responsibly managed student accommodation focused in high demand UK towns and cities remains strong, whilst the supply of such accommodation continues to be restricted," Chair Mark Pain said.
Shares in the company were 4.5% higher at 68.02p each in London on Thursday morning.
By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com
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Empiric (ESP)