Notice of General Meeting and Trading Update

RNS Number : 5527O

Unite Group PLC

08 November 2016

 

Press release 8 November 2016

THE UNITE GROUP PLC

("Unite Students", "Unite", the "Group", or the "Company")

NOTICE OF GENERAL MEETING FOR REIT CONVERSION AND TRADING UPDATE

Unite Students, the UK's leading manager and developer of student accommodation, today gives notice of a General Meeting in relation to its REIT conversion and provides an update on trading covering the period to 7 November 2016.

REIT conversion and Notice of General Meeting

Unite Students has issued a Circular and is convening a General Meeting of shareholders to be held at 9.30am on Wednesday 30 November 2016 at 66 Queen Square, Bristol, BS1 4BE.

The purpose of the meeting is to seek approval for various amendments to the Company's Articles of Association required in connection with the proposed conversion to a Real Estate Investment Trust ("REIT") with effect from 1 January 2017. Further details are provided in a Circular posted to shareholders and also available on the Company's website at www.unite-group.co.uk.

Trading update

2016/17 sales performance

Occupancy across the portfolio is at 98% for the 2016/17 academic year with average rental growth for the full year of 3.8%. Given this high occupancy and rental growth performance, in line with our expectations, we remain on track to deliver an EPS yield of around 4.5% in 2016.

The student intake by UK Universities in 2016/17 is again at record levels, driving growth in overall student numbers of approximately 40,000. Growth has been strongest at the upper and mid-tariff Universities where our portfolio is concentrated, which are up 3% and 1% respectively compared to a slight reduction at the lower tariff Universities.

Customer satisfaction remains very high and we have received positive feedback on our new services, such as enhanced Wi-Fi speeds, longer opening hours to meet students' needs, the roll out of our business wide welfare training and our new ambassador programme in which we recruit mature resident students to provide support to new students during their transition from home to life at university. The ambassadors receive the relevant training and gain valuable employability experience. By the end of 2017, we will have created over 100 opportunities for students.

2017/18 sales outlook

We started taking bookings for the 2017/18 academic year on 2 November and 1,500 students have already re-booked for next year. Universities have confirmed 17,000 nomination beds, taking occupancy to 37% compared to 35% at the same point last year. The strong start supports our view of 3%-3.5% average rental growth for the 2017/18 academic year.

Development activity

We continue to make good progress with our regional development programme of over 5,500 beds. We have secured a site in Sheffield for around 570 beds in line with our target returns of 8.0-8.5%, subject to planning. We have also obtained planning for the site on Skelhorne Street in Liverpool for over 1,000 beds. Both sites are in excellent central student locations and will complement Unite's existing properties in each city. We also remain confident that we will secure planning consents on the remaining 2018 and 2019 pipeline.

The development market in our target regional locations remains attractive and we are reviewing a number of schemes in line with our target returns. We are also reviewing a small number of development opportunities in London which are approaching our target returns of 7.0-7.5%.

Investment market

Transaction volumes have remained healthy with investment from a wide range of buyers in our market. The quarterly valuation of USAF and LSAV both reported stable average net initial yields of 5.6% and 4.9% respectively. We would expect to see further third-party transactions over the remainder of this year supportive of current valuations.

Greetham Street, Portsmouth and Gosford Gate, Coventry were sold to USAF in September for a combined value of £88.4 million. Both properties, comprising 1,122 beds, were completed in 2016 and are fully let on long-term nomination agreements to Portsmouth University and Coventry University, generating an income yield on cost of 9.3%. We have now delivered our targeted level of disposals in 2016, having sold £113 million of assets (on a see-through basis). We will continue to recycle assets from the portfolio to re-invest in our development programme and to ensure that we have the highest quality portfolio available at a range of price points.

Richard Smith, Chief Executive of Unite Students, commented: "The outlook for the student accommodation sector remains positive with an ongoing shortage of purpose-built accommodation available for the growing numbers of students. We remain focused on owning and managing the highest-quality portfolio and retaining our competitive advantage by strengthening our relationships with Universities while increasing the services we offer to students. Unite remains well positioned for continued strong performance and growth as we continue to grow the portfolio through selective, accretive development while maintaining a strong, flexible capital structure."

Financial calendar

Unite Group plc will hold an investor and analyst day on 1 December 2016 and release its preliminary results on 22 February 2017.

ENDS

For further information, please contact:

Unite Students Joe Lister, Chief Financial Officer Paul Richmond, Corporate Affairs Director	Tel: [phone]
Bell Pottinger Victoria Geoghegan Nick Lambert Elizabeth Snow	Tel: [phone]

Notes to editors:

About Unite Students

Unite Students is the UK's largest and most established manager and developer of purpose-built student accommodation. It provides a home for around 50,000 students, in more than 140 properties, across 28 leading university cities in England and Scotland. Unite works in partnership with more than 60 Higher Education institutions and also lets rooms directly to students.

Unite's purpose is to provide a home to its culturally-diverse customers, offering them a strong foundation for academic and personal success. The accommodation is high quality, safe and close to university campuses, transport links and local amenities. Students live in ensuite study bedrooms with rents covering all bills, insurance, 24-hour security, fortnightly cleaning of communal kitchens and bathrooms and high speed Wi-Fi.

Founded in 1991 in Bristol, The Unite Group plc is a FTSE250 company, listed on the London Stock Exchange, employing more than 1,250 people. It pursues a sustainable growth strategy, designed to make the most of the resilient nature of the student accommodation sector. Unite is focused on maintaining its position as the leading provider of student accommodation in the UK, by having the best brand, operating the highest quality portfolio and maintaining the strongest capital structure in the sector. This is achieved with consistent investment in, and improvement to, the operating platform; highly selective development activity and asset management initiatives.

Unite is invested in and operates a small number of specialist funds and joint ventures with institutional investment partners, the largest of which is the £2 billion Unite UK Student Accommodation Fund (USAF).

Unite is the founder and major donor of the Unite Foundation. Since 2012 this has provided free student accommodation and financial support to 160 young people in the UK who lack family support.

For more information you can visit Unite's corporate website www.unite-group.co.uk, the student site www.unite-students.com or the Unite Foundation site www.unitefoundation.co.uk.

 

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