UK student digs specialist Empiric Student Property said on Friday that it has refinanced £32.8 mln (€38 mln) of the group’s existing debt due to expire in October 2020. The facility has been extended by four years to 31 October 2024 with the existing lender AlB Group.
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, the company said in a statement.
Empiric Student currently has £14 mln of cash and £35 mln of undrawn debt facilities available. Since the last update, the group has drawn £10 mln of debt and deferred the balance of the development pipeline with the corresponding development debt of £12 mln also being deferred.
The firm 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.
