Unite, the UK’s largest owner of student accommodation, has made a takeover offer for smaller listed rival Empiric Student Property that values the company at about £710M.
Unite has offered £1.07 a share for Empiric, the latter said in a statement on 5 June. That is a 10% premium to Empiric’s share price before the offer was announced, and a discount of the same amount to Empiric’s net asset value. 
Empiric said that it had entered into due diligence with Unite, though there was no guarantee a bid would be forthcoming. 
Before the Unite bid was announced, former Times journalist Dominic Walsh reported on X…