£32.8M debt refinancing with extended 4 year term

RNS Number : 7222K

Empiric Student Property PLC

24 April 2020

 

24 April 2020

Empiric Student Property plc

("Empiric" or the "Company" or, together with its subsidiaries, the "Group")

REFINANCING OF £32.8 MILLION OF DEBT WITH TERM EXTENDED BY FOUR YEARS

The Board of Empiric Student Property plc (ticker: ESP), the owner and operator of student accommodation across the UK, is pleased to announce the successful refinancing of £32.8 million of the Group's existing debt (the "Facility") due to expire in October 2020.  The Facility has been extended by four years to 31 October 2024 with the existing lender AlB Group (UK) plc ("AIB").

The Facility is on more favourable terms with a reduced interest cost effective from 30 April 2020 of 1.7% per annum above three-month LIBOR (previously 2.25% above three-month LIBOR) and remains secured against a portfolio of operating assets, held as a lending group, through a wholly owned Group subsidiary.

All refinancing for 2020 is now concluded and the next refinancing is not due until November 2022.

As announced by the Group on 31 March 2020, based on drawn facilities at 31 December 2019, the Group has significant headroom against banking covenants calculated on an average basis across the Group as follows: loan to value ("LTV") covenant 65% compared to actual LTV of 35%*, and interest cover ratio ("ICR") covenant of 216% compared to actual ICR of 397%. In addition to this, the Group has £134 million of uncharged assets.

The Group currently has £14 million of cash and £35 million of undrawn debt facilities available. Since the last update, the Group has drawn £10 million of debt and deferred the balance of the development pipeline with the corresponding development debt of £12 million also being deferred.

The Group will provide a trading update on Wednesday, 6 May 2020 when it expects to have much greater clarity on the amount of support that has been requested by its residents regarding their rent and lease obligations for the final semester of the 2019/20 academic year.

Lynne Fennah, Chief Financial and Operating Officer of Empiric Student Property plc, commented:

"We are delighted to have successfully refinanced this facility early with existing lender AIB, extending the term by four years on more favourable financial terms, and we look forward to continuing to work with AIB. The Group's next refinancing is not due until November 2022."

Commenting on the Facility, Gerry Jones, Senior Director of AIB Group (UK) plc said:

" We are pleased to provide Empiric with this term extension to their debt facility with AIB. The debt facility is secured against premium student accommodation in a range of key UK university cities and has been structured to meet Empiric's specific refinancing requirements."

*  Calculated in line with that required by banking covenants, which excludes cash holdings. If cash holdings are included, which is in line with the usual reporting calculation, the LTV is 34% at the date of this release.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON THE COMPANY, PLEASE CONTACT:

Empiric Student Property plc	(via Maitland/AMO below)
Tim Attlee (Chief Executive Officer)
Lynne Fennah (Chief Financial & Operating Officer)
Jefferies International Limited	Tel: [phone]
Stuart Klein
Tom Yeadon
RBC Europe Limited (trading as RBC Capital Markets)	Tel: [phone]
Charlie Foster Marcus Jackson
M aitland/AMO (Communications Adviser)	Tel: [phone]
James Benjamin	Email: [e-mail]

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® 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.

 

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