Healthcare property group raises £185m with share placing

Warrington healthcare property firm Assura has successfully raised £185m with the placing of more than 240 million new shares.

The placing price of 77p per share represents a discount of 7.8% to the closing price on April 6, 2020 of 83.5p.

Trading in the placing shares will commence at 8am on Thursday, April 9.

The group announced the proposed placing shortly before 5pm last night (April 6).

Explaining the reasons behind the placing, the group said: “Prior to the first reported case of COVID-19 in the UK, Assura had a substantial pipeline of both development and acquisition opportunities which continues to grow and, therefore, we are looking to undertake a placing to raise approximately £180m to enable the company to continue to deliver purpose-built, modern, medical centres to support local communities, while maintaining the strong balance sheet that enables the company to be a long-term partner to the NHS.”

Chief executive Jonathan Murphy added: “The importance of the NHS to society has never been more apparent than it is now in dealing with COVID-19.

“Assura has been doing all we can to support the health service and our GP partners where possible, such as assisting occupiers to optimise the use of space in their buildings and offering any vacant space to the NHS.

“GPs are the foundation to both the NHS and to their communities, and for the last 17 years Assura has been focusing on providing these GPs the modern medical space to allow them to help their patients – 8.5% of the UK’s population is now cared for by GPs in one of Assura’s buildings.

“We feel we are very well placed to help the NHS.

“We have extremely close relationships with the GPs, understand their needs, and have an experienced team that can navigate the complex medical and real estate requirements.

“GPs need more modern space: 50% of the current GP space is deemed to be not fit for purpose while the pressures on GPs from an ageing population continue to grow.

“Our predictable business model demonstrates our resilience in these uncertain times with no change to the current business plan, rent collection in line with normal patterns, a strong WAULT (weighted average unexpired lease term) of 11.6 years and a consistent dividend policy.

“Our strong financial position allows us to deliver on our ongoing growth trajectory in order to continue to provide the NHS with modern, fit for purpose buildings.”

And he revealed: “We are, today, announcing the establishment of the Assura Community Fund in to which we will donate at least £2.5m, which has been set up to further support communities where we own assets.

“The fund will support charitable projects which benefit the health and wellbeing of individuals living within a 15-mile radius of Assura-owned healthcare buildings, as well as other health-improving charitable purposes.

“This donation allows Assura to make an immediate impact in the local communities in which it operates.”

Assura said it has been working with the NHS and GPs for 17 years and has delivered more than £400m of new developments and improvements to existing properties over this period, with around £100m of that provided in the past three years.

The company currently has an immediate pipeline of £165m, comprising:

£81m of onsite developments, with the majority scheduled to complete by December 2020.

£67m of acquisition opportunities all in legal hands, expected to complete within the next three-six months. The company said it is continuing to successfully complete acquisitions, with £41m completed in March.

£17m of asset-enhancement capital projects where the company believes it can generate incremental value in its portfolio.