The Board of Empiric Student Property plc (ticker: ESP), the owner and operator of premium student accommodation across the UK, has declared a dividend of 1.55 pence per Ordinary Share in respect of the quarter ended 31 December 2016, payable on or around 8 February 2017 to Ordinary Shareholders on the register on 20 January 2017. The ex-dividend date will be 19 January 2017.

0.93 pence of this dividend will be paid as a Property Income Distribution ("PID") in respect of the Company's tax exempt property rental business and 0.62 pence will be paid as an ordinary UK dividend ("non-PID").

The Board is targeting a dividend of 6.1p per share for the 12 months ending 30 June 2017 (1).  The Board expects all future dividend payments to be substantially, if not fully, covered by adjusted earnings with effect from January 2017.

Note:
(1) The target dividend is a target only and not a forecast. There can be no assurance that the target will be met and it should not be taken as an indication of the Company's expected or actual future results.