Unite, the Bristol-based student accommodation group, today said it expects to be among the business winners from the Olympics with a one-off boost to its income of up to £1.75m.
The group is in the final stages of preparation to rent 3,600 of its rooms for LOCOG – the London Olympics delivery body – for eight weeks up to and during the Games. Income from the deal is likely to be between £1.25m and £1.75m Unite said today in an interim statement to shareholders.
The statement, covering the period between its final results on March 1 to yesterday, also shows it has already let 72% of its 42,000 rooms for the 2012/2013 academic year, compared to 59% at the beginning of March 2012, and 73% at the same point in 2011, when there was a rush in applications ahead of the introduction of increased tuition fees.
It also said its development programme was progressing well, on time and to budget, with an additional 1,822 beds for the 2012/13 academic year and a further 1,514 in 2014 while it had made further progress to refinance its debt with a new £121m, 10-year facility with Legal & General.
The group has completed the sale of £18m non-core assets from its balance sheet with a further £35m at the due diligence stage.
Chief executive Mark Allan said: “Building on our strong operational performance in 2011 we have continued to make good progress against our strategic objectives in 2012.
“High occupancy, firm cost control, new openings and rental growth prospects underpin our view that we are on track to make a further positive step change in our profitability this year.
“Meanwhile, positive progress against debt financing and asset disposal milestones means that we remain well positioned to pursue accretive development opportunities selectively without stretching our balance sheet.”
