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Unite Group (UTG) said it was on track to meet its 2026/27 academic year guidance despite broader concerns about the student accommodation market.

For its legacy portfolio, the student landlord still expects to achieve the lower end of its 93-96 per cent occupancy and 2-3 per cent rental growth. Currently, 74 per cent of beds have been reserved, down from 76 per cent last year and 86 per cent two years ago.

Performance has been weaker in its recent acquisition, Empiric. Reservation rates there are 33 per cent, down from 48 per cent a year ago.

The valuation of the group’s portfolio declined 2 per cent during the quarter to £4.8bn. The company said it had earmarked a further £500mn of properties for disposal in the next six to 12 months, in addition to £130mn either under offer or already disposed of thus far in 2026.

Chief executive Joe Lister said: “The board is exploring options to accelerate our transition to a more focused, higher-quality portfolio.” Shares were flat in early trading.

Impax Asset Management (IPX) shares tumbled 23 per cent in early trading after the environmental, social and governance-focused fund manager cut annual revenue guidance and disclosed another fall in assets under management (AUM) during the second quarter.

The Aim-listed group’s revenue forecast is now expected to be between £109mn-£113mn, versus the consensus of £124mn. It reported revenue of £142mn last year.

Impax pointed to continued net outflows and the expected loss of assets from the Impax Environmental Markets (IEM) trust, which is currently going through an ‘exit tender’ process, as reasons for the downgrade.

Over the quarter to 31 March, Impax’s AUM fell 8 per cent to £22.3bn on net outflows of £2bn. Management said outflows were due to redemptions from a “small number of institutional investors” and said nearly two thirds of its investments beat benchmarks in the quarter.