(Alliance News) - Assura PLC on Tuesday said it swung to an annual loss, due to a reduced property valuation, but it raised its dividend and remained positive looking forward.
The Warrington, England-based care property investor and developer reported a pretax loss of GBP119.2 million for the financial year that ended March 31 from a profit of GBP155.8 million the year before.
The loss was caused by a revaluation deficit of GBP215.3 million, down from a revaluation gain of GBP69.4 million the previous year. Assura said this sharp valuation movement reflected "the recent unstable macroeconomic background and movement in gilt yields".
This valuation loss resulted in the company's total property return swinging to negative GBP77.3 million in financial 2023 from positive GBP195.9 million in financial 2022. Total property return takes into account valuation movement and net rental income. This was GBP138.0 million, a 9.1% rise from GBP126.5 million the previous year.
Assura had a portfolio of 608 properties at the end of March, down from 645 the previous year. It said these properities served 6.3 million people across the UK.
Assura's portfolio value at March 31 stood at GBP2.74 billion, down 0.5% from GBP2.75 billion a year before.
Diluted net tangible assets per share fell 12% to 53.6 pence per share, versus 60.7p the year prior.
Assura declared a full year dividend of 3.08 pence per share, up 5.1% from 2.93p the year prior.
Looking forward, Assuara noted the challenges facing the construction industry with cost inflation and delays in the supply chain continued to impact it, but said it had a strong immediate pipeline with five schemes at an estimated cost of GBP37.0 million in development.
Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Murphy said: "We are best placed to provide high-quality, sustainable new premises for delivery of health services, to retrofit existing buildings to meet the net zero carbon challenge, partnering with our supply chain to maximise the social value that we create for the communities we operate in and continually evolving our offering through adopting the latest technologies."
Shares in Assura were down 1.2% at 50.80 pence in London on Tuesday.
By Will Neill, Alliance News reporter
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Assura (AGR)