FINANCE: Primary Health Properties’ portfolio crossed the £1bn mark for the first time in the six months to 30 June, growing by 4.3% during the period.
“This is a psychologically important threshold for us, but we won’t relax,” said Harry Hyman, managing director of the healthcare-focused REIT. “Our aim now is to buy around £50m more this year, and to grow the portfolio to £1.5bn by 2017.”
Rental income grew by 50% to £29.4m, and pretax profit increased from £13.6m to £22.1m. The steep increase in both was largely owing to gains from the acquisition of rival Primary Health Properties in November feeding through for the first time, Hyman said. The deal added 54 properties valued at a total of £233m to PHP’s portfolio.
PHP now owns 262 assets, 257 of which are operational and income-producing, and five which are under development.
The REIT raised £82.5m through the issue of a 4.25% unsecured convertible bond in May, and has completed the restructuring of several banking facilities since the end of the reporting period. PHP agreed to extend its £165m facility with RBS and Santander for a further three years. The extension will see the lending margin reduced by 65 basis points from the original term.
Group LTV stood at 63.6%, slightly up from 61.6% at the end of December.
The company paid an interim dividend of 9.75 pence per share in April 2014, compared with a 9.5p dividend in June last year.
Net asset value per share increased by 2.7% to 308 pence per share during the six months.
sophia.furber@estatesgazette.com
