Assura to place 164m shares to fund near-term pipeline

Assura said on Tuesday that it will place up to 164m new ordinary shares or around 9.9% of the company's existing issued share capital to fund its acquisition and development pipeline.

The placing, which is being conducted via an accelerated bookbuilding process, is expected to be in the range of 58p to 60p per share.

Assura said the placing will allow the group to fund its near-term pipeline of acquisition and development opportunities and provide the necessary financial headroom to continue to maintain its low loan-to-value ratio, which currently stands at around 38%. Following the deployment of the anticipated proceeds of the placing, the company will have access to a further £200m of existing debt capacity to invest in further property acquisitions before reaching the mid-point of its medium term LTV guidance range of 40% to 50%.

As at 31 March, the company had an immediate pipeline of further property acquisitions and developments of £153m. This includes £86m of acquisition opportunities, consisting of individual properties rather than substantial portfolio deals and £67m of development opportunities comprising £31m of developments on site and £36m of developments that are being in the next 6-12 months.

At 0803 BST, the shares were down 2.2% to 62.10p.