Assura completes £22.4m NHS sale

HEALTHCARE property developer Assura has completed the £22.4m sale of its interests in seven NHS LIFT companies.

LIFT (Local Improvement Finance Trusts) companies took public and private sector investment to deliver primary healthcare facilities which were then let on long-term leases to NHS commissioning boards.

Warrington-based group, which builds and rents GP surgeries, first announced the plan to sell the investments in November.

Three have been sold to infrastructure investor Bilfinger Berger Global Infrastructure for £9m, including 20% of the equity in the Liverpool & Sefton Clinics LIFT and 28.6% of Mersey Care Mental Health Hospital which is turning the former Walton Hospital into an 85-bed facility. The deal also includes Assura’s subordinated debt in each scheme.

In an interim management statement the group also said the weighted average annual rent increase in the period since October was 2.19% on the basis of 26 reviews. It means the financial year to date increase is 2.53% following 81 reviews. The rent roll is up to £41.7m, from £40.7m in September.

Assura has completed four developments since October and is on site at a further five with an estimated combined value on completion of £23.1m.

Chief executive Graham Roberts said: “The recent completion of the sale of our interests in several LIFT schemes has provided us with a boost to our net asset value of 2p per share and gross proceeds of over £22m for us to re-invest into primary care property. We remain ideally positioned to support GPs in providing the premises to meet the increasing demands being placed on the primary care sector.”