Assura, the investor and developer of primary care property, announced a trading update for the third quarter ending 31 December 2019 in which it made six acquisitions and completed its third development of the year.
The company now has a portfolio of 563 properties that produces an annual rent roll of £105.8m.
The six acquisitions competed at a cost of £31.1m and it also made four disposals for £1m. In the period, it completed the development of a facility at Stow-on-the-Wold, taking its total for the year to three at a total cost of £11.8m. The group is currently on site with 13 developments with a total development cost of £66m.
Its acquisition and development pipeline has expanded to be worth £252m, including on site developments, up from £206m at the end of September 2019. That is made up of £90m of possible developments and £96m of acquisitions.
In the quarter, the group completed five lease re-gears taking cumulative year-to-date re-gears to 18. At 31 December 2019 gross debt stood at £787m with undrawn facilities of £280m.
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.
Jonathan Murphy, chief executive, 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.
“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.”
AGR : Assura updates on primary care portfolio