Primary care property investor Assura increased its net debt by 24% to £828.6m during 2019/20 as it continued to pursue its growth strategy through acquisitions and developments.
During the year, it acquired 28 properties for a combined cost of £119m and, at the end of March, was on site with 15 developments.
Of these developments, seven were under forward-funding agreements and eight were in-house developments with a combined development cost of £81m. At the year-end £50.3m had been already spent on the schemes.
The business also has an immediate development pipeline of 18 properties with an estimated cost of £77m which it is aiming to be on site with over the next 12 months.
In addition, Assura has acquisition opportunities that are in legal hand worth £67m. It has an additional £17m of enhancement projects in its pipeline, as well as an extended pipeline of £199m further opportunities where it is the exclusive partner.
LTV at the end of the firm’s financial year stood at 38% and it had undrawn facilities of £220m.
Following its year-end Assura also completed an equity raise of £185m and extended its £300m revolving credit facility with Lloyds, HSBC, Santander and Barclays until November 2024. The facility had been due to expire in May 2021.
Meanwhile, the firm’s pretax profit fell by 6% to £78.9m, which the firm attributed to a “lower positive valuation movement” than the previous year.
At the end of March its portfolio value stood at £2.14bn, up around 8%. The portfolio’s net initial yield was at 4.68%, compared to 4.74% for 2019.
Assura’s revenue was up by circa 8.9% to £111.5m for the year, while its EPRA net asset value nudged up 1.6% to £1.3bn. Its rental income was also up by 6% to £109m from its 576 properties, which had a weighted average unexpired lease term of 11.7 years.
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