Empiric Student Property PLC Result of AGM and Trading Update (0071M)

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: [phone] 
 Gary Gould 
 Stuart Klein 
 
 
 Newgate (PR Adviser)              Tel: [phone] 
 James Benjamin                    Em: [e-mail] 
 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

AGMFKQDBDBKBPQB

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 25, 2018 02:01 ET (06:01 GMT)