Welcome to the November 2019 Hardman & Co Investor Forum. Hardman had four companies presenting, giving some very different investment opportunities. This webcast shows the Primary Health Properties #PHP presentation, filmed by London South East for Hardman & Co.
PHP gives investors the chance to buy into primary health properties, ie GP Medical Centres, effectively all let to the NHS or its Irish equivalent. Thus the shares have gilt-like characteristics with a substantially higher yield. It’s been a big year for PHP, having merged with its competitor, MedicX, giving it a portfolio with a gross value of £2.3bn.
The stats are impressive. #PHP has a yield of 3.9% and over 23 years the shares have had a compound annual return of 11%, of which 3.9% comes as a dividend. Each year the dividend has grown and the company has a Market Capitalisation of 1.7 billion pounds, putting PHP in the top half of the FTSE 250. 90% of properties are leased to either the UK or the Irish Government, and demand is underpinned by a growing, ageing population prone to disease.
The PHP speakers were:
Harry Hyman, Managing Director and founder
Richard Howell, Finance Director
Chris Santer, CIO