Empiric, the purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) firm being pursued by larger rival – Unite Group, has been forced to issue a statement over comments made following a meeting with investors.
The London-based firm revealed last week that it had received a £710m cash-and-shares bid from Unite. However, today the company stated that the comments should not have been made and so retracted them in full.
“Shareholders are advised to disregard the statements entirely. In respect of the synergies statement, the company acknowledges that it was neither properly compiled nor prepared with due care and consideration, such that the synergies statement is not capable of being supported by reports from its reporting accounts or financial advisers in accordance with the requirements of Rule 28.1(a) of the Takeover Code.
“In respect of the CMA Statement, the company clarifies that, at this stage, there has been no engagement with the CMA by Empiric and no substantive competition analysis undertaken by its advisers. The CMA Statement did not therefore meet the standards of care required under Rule 19.1 of the Code.”
Statement, Empiric Student Property
Empiric said at 11.30am on 5 June, senior representatives of the company attended a scheduled meeting with certain investors and an investment analyst.
That meeting was not attended by an appropriate financial adviser or corporate broker to the Company, in accordance with the requirements of Rule 20.2(b) of the Code.
Subsequent to the meeting concluding, the investment analyst published a report containing the following statements.
“On synergies, [Empiric] said that half of Empiric’s £15m of overheads could be easily cut, possibly two-thirds, plus some financial synergies that could come from being a larger size entity (the “Synergies Statement”); and, Empiric said that the CMA will probably look at six out of the 23 cities where it is present, and eventually some asset disposals might be required (the “CMA Statement”) (together, the “Statements”).”
Investment Analyst’s statement, Empiric
Unite, the first provider of PBSA in the UK when it launched 34 years ago, today hosts around 70,000 students a year with over 60 university partners. Empiric has 7,685 bedroom spaces in 23 UK towns and cities.
