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(Alliance News) - Assura PLC on Monday said its portfolio has grown to 634 properties as of the end of December, bringing in yearly rent of GBP132.5 million.
This is up from a portfolio of 593 properties with rental income of GBP118.0 million a year ago.
Assura said its immediate development pipeline of 22 schemes is worth GBP166 million to be completed within 12 months, up from 20 schemes worth GBP145 million in September.
The primary care property investor said it completed nine acquisitions worth GBP105 million in the financial third quarter that ended December 31. Its current pipeline is worth GBP71 million, down from GBP102 million in September.
The new developments and acquisitions follow Asura's equity raise in November. A placing of 267.6 million shares at 68.0 pence each raised GBP182.0 million for the Warrington-based company to put towards its pipeline.
Net debt was GBP957 million on December 31 at an average interest rate of 2.3%. This is up from net debt GBP849 million on December 31, 2020.
Assura is on-site at 14 developments with a total cost of GBP97 million, up from GBP72 million a quarter before.
Chief Executive Officer Jonathon Murphy update: "It has been another strong quarter of progress as we have swiftly deployed the proceeds of our successful November equity placing...As the booster and vaccination programmes continue - with some of our buildings acting as major hubs - the urgent need for high-quality primary care capacity to support the significant effort required to address the backlog from the pandemic will be in even sharper focus in the coming months. Assura continues to be a partner of choice to the NHS in helping to deliver this critical capacity."
Assura's share price rose by 1.1% to 69.94 pence each in Monday morning trading in London.
By Elizabeth Winter; elizabethwinter@alliancenews.com
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