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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 Notes to Editors

Assura plc is the UK's leading diversified healthcare REIT. Assura enables better health outcomes through its portfolio of more than 600 healthcare buildings, from which over six million patients are served.

A UK REIT based in Altrincham, Assura is a constituent of the FTSE 250 and the EPRA* indices. As at 31 March 2024, Assura's portfolio was valued at £2.7 billion and has a strong track record of growing financial returns and dividends for shareholders.

At Assura, we BUILD for health, having developed over 100 new healthcare buildings in our history, and at the heart of our strategy sits The Bigger Picture; Healthy Environment (E), Healthy Communities (S), Healthy Business (G).

Further information is available at www.assuraplc.com

*EPRA is a registered trademark of the European Public Real Estate Association