Assura is seeking more than £190m in an equity raise.
The primary healthcare landlord and developer, which reported a 58% increase in profit to £69.4m in its half-year results this morning, said it would put the cash towards its development pipeline. It also plans to raise an additional £8m in a retail placing.
Barclays, JP Morgan Cazenove and Stifel are acting as joint bookrunners. The placing of up to 267,554,740 ordinary shares will equate to approximately 10% of the company’s existing share capital.
The proceeds will be used to fund its £193m short-term pipeline, which includes £102m of acquisitions, expected to complete within the next three to six months, and £72m of on-site developments, the majority of which will complete during 2022.
Assura currently has a £480m pipeline comprising 12 schemes on site, 20 schemes ready to be developed at a cost of £145m within 12 months and 37 schemes where Assura is preferred developer, at a total cost of £263m. Alongside this it also plans to spend £19m enhancing 24 existing assets over then next two years.
Chief executive Jonathan Murphy said: “Assura has continued to make strong progress over the past six months. We expanded our high-quality portfolio with 27 new additions and grew Assura’s market-leading development pipeline to a record £480m, building upon our acquisition of Apollo in February.”
Assura’s rent roll has grown by 5% over the six months to £127.5m, while the portfolio value rose by 6% to £2.6bn. It also has undrawn facilities and cash of £367m.
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