21 May 2024
Assura plc
Assura & USS announce
£250m joint venture
Assura plc (Assura) and Universities
Superannuation Scheme Limited (USS), today announce they have
entered into a new £250m 20:80 joint venture to support investment
in essential NHS infrastructure.
A strategic partnership has been
formed between USS, the principal pension scheme for universities
and higher education institutions in the UK with over £75bn of
assets under management, and Assura, the specialist healthcare
property investor and developer.
This long-term partnership will
support investment into essential NHS community healthcare
buildings, which help to address the current backlog of patients
waiting for care. As the population ages and more people live with
chronic conditions, modern, flexible healthcare buildings are
central to the NHS's priority of delivering more care closer to
patients.
The joint venture has an initial
term of 20 years and will be seeded with an initial agreed
portfolio of seven assets (£107 million), transferred from Assura's
existing portfolio at a small discount to the March 2024 valuation.
The joint venture is targeting acquisition-led growth to £250
million over the next three years, with potential to grow to £400
million thereafter. The joint venture will focus exclusively on
assets let directly to NHS or GP tenants with rents linked to
inflation or with fixed uplifts.
Assura will retain a 20% equity
interest in the JV and act as property and asset manager, receiving
asset management fees linked to the valuation of the
portfolio.
The transaction will further
strengthen Assura's balance sheet, bringing additional diversity to
the available funding sources to support Assura's continued growth
trajectory.
It is intended that the net cash
proceeds received (£85 million) will be recycled into Assura's
attractive pipeline of acquisition and development opportunities
across medical centres and broader healthcare markets.
Lazard & Co., Limited acted as
exclusive financial adviser to Assura.
Jonathan Murphy, CEO of Assura, said:
"We are delighted to announce this
exciting transaction with a high-quality and long-term capital
partner in USS.
"This important transaction
highlights the attractive investment characteristics in the
healthcare sector and specifically the long term resilient cash
flows generated by our assets.
"As well as demonstrating our
ability to re-deploy capital into our pipeline of opportunities in
broader healthcare markets, we have sourced new capital that will
fund investment in healthcare infrastructure that is so badly
needed to enable better health outcomes."
Alex Turner, Head of Property at USS, said:
"We are looking forward to working
with Assura on this exciting joint venture. As a long term
investor, we believe that investing in important UK infrastructure
and paying our members pensions are strongly aligned as these kinds
of assets can provide inflation-linked income over many years.
Healthcare is a very important sector and we're delighted to
support investment in essential social infrastructure."
- Ends
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For more information, please
contact:
Assura plc
|
Tel: 0161 515 2043
|
Jayne Cottam, CFO
David Purcell, Investor Relations
Director
|
Email: Investor@assura.co.uk
|
FGS
Global
Gordon Simpson
|
Tel: 0207 251 3801
Email: Assura@fgsglobal.com
|
This announcement contains inside
information as defined in Article 7 of the EU Market Abuse
Regulation No 596/2014 and has been announced in accordance with
the Company's obligations under Article 17 of that
Regulation.
Lazard & Co., Limited
("Lazard"), which is authorised and regulated in the United Kingdom
by the FCA, is acting exclusively as financial adviser to Assura
and no one else in connection with the transaction referred to in
this announcement and will not be responsible to anyone other than
Assura for providing the protections afforded to clients of Lazard
nor for providing advice in relation to such transaction or any
other matters referred to in this announcement. Neither Lazard nor
any of its affiliates (nor any of their respective directors,
officers, employees or agents), owes or accepts any duty, liability
or responsibility whatsoever (whether direct or indirect, whether
in contract, in tort, under statute or otherwise) to any person who
is not a client of Lazard in connection with the transaction
referred to in this announcement, this announcement, any statement
contained herein or otherwise.
Notes to Editors
About Assura
Assura plc is the UK's leading
specialist healthcare property investor and developer. Assura
enables better health services 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.
About USS
Universities Superannuation Scheme
(USS) was established in 1974 as the principal pension scheme for
universities and higher education institutions in the UK. We work
with around 330 employers to help build a secure financial future
for 528,000 members and their families. We are one of the largest
pension schemes in the UK, with total assets of around £75.5bn (at
31 March 2023).
More information can be found at
uss.co.uk