Student housing firm beats fundraising target

Acquisitive student accommodation provider Empiric today said it has raised £85 million through a share placing and subscription offer, beating its £75m target.

The firm said it will use the proceeds from the issue to invest in more purpose-built student housing, “further diversifying the company’s property portfolio”.

During the past week, Empiric paid £11.92m for a site in Glasgow that used to he the home of Scottish Ballet, and bought a £12.9m project in Aberdeen.

Chief executive Paul Hadaway said: “We continue to receive support in our growth ambitions from both existing Shareholders and new investors.

“We have a substantial pipeline of operational premium student accommodation assets and development opportunities into which we expect to be able to deploy the net proceeds of the Issue in the near term.”