24 October 2024
Assura plc
Disposal of 12 assets for £25m and update on disposal programme
Assura plc (“Assura”), the UK’s leading diversified healthcare REIT is pleased to announce the completion of the disposal of 12 assets for cash proceeds of £25 million. The sale price is in line with the current book value of the assets and the proceeds will enable a partial repayment of the Group’s revolving credit facility.
Disposal programme update
The Company continues to make strong progress on the disposals programme announced in August 2024 following the £500 million private hospital portfolio acquisition.
The Company is in discussions on further tranches of asset disposals with an aggregate value of approximately £110 million, being a mixture of both portfolio disposals and assets for transfer into our previously announced joint venture partnership.
In addition, a further pipeline of 27 assets with an aggregate value of approximately £90 million that meet the Company’s disposal criteria has been identified and preliminary work on the possible disposal of these assets has commenced.
As such, the Company remains on track with its target to reduce net debt to EBITDA below 9 times and LTV below 45% over the next 18 – 24 months. A further update on the disposals programme will be provided at our half-year results presentation on 14 November 2024.
Jonathan Murphy, CEO, said:
“I am pleased that we have completed the portfolio sale of 12 assets for £25 million in line with book value and illustrating the attraction of our underlying asset class.
“Our £500 million private hospital portfolio acquisition in August 2024 was an important strategic step for Assura becoming a diversified healthcare REIT capitalising on the significant opportunity in the structurally-supported private hospital market. The progress on our disposal programme is an important next step in delivering our commitment to reduce leverage following the acquisition.”
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