Acquisition of student property in Glasgow

RNS Number : 8395G

Empiric Student Property PLC

09 March 2015

 

9 March 2015

Empiric Student Property plc

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

Empiric acquires student accommodation property in Glasgow: Ballet School

The Board of Empiric Student Property plc (ticker: ESP) is pleased to announce that the Group has completed the acquisition of the freehold of an operational, direct-let, premium student accommodation property in Glasgow, for a consideration of £11.92 million (excluding acquisition costs). 

The Ballet School is a high-quality conversion of the listed former home of the Scottish Ballet, on Willowbank Crescent, comprising 103 self-contained studios of various sizes, which was completed in 2013.  The property has been bought from the developer, CCG (Scotland) Limited.

The Ballet School is located adjacent to the former Willowbank Primary School which is being developed into a 178 bed, high-specification student accommodation scheme by Empiric in conjunction with its joint venture partner, an affiliated company of Revcap Advisors Limited (the "Willowbank Development"). The combination of the Ballet School and the Willowbank Development, once complete, will result in a 281 bed exemplar property in a super-prime location in the West End of Glasgow.

The Ballet School has been fully let since it began operations and management of the property will continue to be undertaken by Corporate Residential Management Limited ("CRM") under a new contract that will incorporate the Willowbank Development, which is expected to commence operations in time for the 2016/2017 academic year.  The Company would then expect to benefit from the combined operations and economies of scale.

Paul Hadaway, Chief Executive of Empiric Student Property plc, commented:

"The Ballet School is ideally located between the city centre and the Gilmorehill campus of the University of Glasgow, one of the top three universities in Scotland.  Glasgow hosts the largest student population in Scotland and, therefore, represents an ideal city for Empiric to implement a clustering strategy, targeting 300-400 beds which can be operationally combined, to the benefit of both the resident students and the Group. The acquisition is in line with Empiric's investment criteria and returns profile."

For further information on the Company, please contact:

Empiric Student Property plc	(via Newgate)
Paul Hadaway (Chief Executive)
Tim Attlee (Chief Investment Officer)
Michael Enright (Chief Financial Officer)
Akur Limited (Joint Financial Adviser)	Tel: [phone]
Tom Frost
Anthony Richardson
Siobhan Sergeant
Jefferies International Limited (Joint Financial Adviser and Broker)	Tel: [phone]
Gary Gould
Stuart Klein
Alex Collins
Newgate (Financial PR)	Tel: [phone]
James Benjamin	Em: [e-mail]
Andre Hamlyn

Further information on Empiric can be found on the Company's website at www.espreit.co.uk.

Notes:

Empiric Student Property plc (incorporated in England & Wales) is an internally managed real estate investment trust ("REIT") investing in modern, premium, student accommodation, with a focus on quality and with assets generally in prime central locations in top university cities and towns in the UK.  The Company 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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