Healthcare-focused property investor continues to make strong progress
Warrington-based property investment firm Assura said it continued to make strong progress, in a third quarter trading update today covering the period to December 31, 2019.
The group, which specialises in healthcare property, said it is building its property portfolio, with current sites now standing at 563.
Development has been completed at Stow-on-the-Wold, taking the total to three completed year-to-date at a total cost of £11.8m.
Assura is currently on site with 13 developments at the period end with a total development cost of £66m, while six acquisitions were completed in the period at a cost of £31.1m. Four disposals were made for cash proceeds of £1m.
The group’s immediate development pipeline further increased to £90m, up from £72m at September 2019, while the immediate acquisitions pipeline further increased to £96m, up from £65m at September 2019.
The total immediate pipeline, including on site developments, is worth £252m, up from £206m at September 2019.
Five lease re-gears were completed in the quarter taking cumulative year-to-date re-gears to 18. These leases represent £1.7m of the group’s rent roll, adding a weighted average of 10.2 years WAULT to those 18 leases.
Annualised rent roll stands at £105.8m taking account of additions, disposals and rent reviews.
As at December 31, 2019, gross debt stood at £787m with undrawn facilities of £280m.
Chief executive Jonathan Murphy said: “Assura continued to make strong progress in the third quarter.
“We expanded our market-leading portfolio with the acquisition of six high-quality assets and completed our third development of the year in Stow-on-the-Wold.
“We also grew our immediate pipeline of acquisition and development opportunities, reinforcing what was already our strongest in 10 years, to £252m including 13 developments currently on site.”
He added: “With the new Government enshrining in law increased funding for the NHS and taking forward the Health Infrastructure Plan, better primary care facilities for patients, staff and services are at the heart of the agenda.
“In this context, Assura is well positioned to deliver high-quality assets and value for money for the NHS.”
As previously announced, the quarterly dividend has been increased to 0.697p per share with effect from January 2020. This is equivalent to 2.788p per share on an annualised basis.
