Primary Health Properties PLC

Hello everyone and thank you for joining us for PHP's interim results for the six months ended 30th of June 2026. It's been another busy period for us, delivering a robust operational performance, translating into strong financial results and good earnings growth. We've also made very good progress on our key strategic objectives and I'll walk you through those shortly. First moving on to the highlights of our results in the first half. The operational activity in our portfolio remains a key driver for us. Rental growth on our rent reviews are a high volume aspect of our business, which supports both earnings and dividend growth. And we're again encouraged by the rental uplifts we have achieved in the period. This has been enhanced by the asset management and risk control development activity, which is vital to set evidence for these rent reviews in the future. This activity, along with our disciplined cost control over overheads and financing, and the positive contribution from the Assura merger, has supported another period of strong earnings growth of plus 9%. Following the merger, we've retained a key focus on our strategic priorities of integration, delivering synergies, bringing our leverage back to our target range and refinancing the acquisition bridge facilities. We'll come on to the details shortly, but we have made substantial progress on all of this and our plans remain firmly on track. We're of course very proud that 2026 is our 30th consecutive year of dividend growth and our business is all about delivering strong, secure, recurring, growing cash flows for our shareholders. And finally, the best of both approach from the merger means we are now seeing opportunities to create more value in our portfolio of critical healthcare infrastructure assets. The three markets we operate in, Primary Care UK, Primary Care Ireland, private hospitals, all have strong structural demand and attractive investment characteristics, which give us confidence in delivering future growth for our shareholders. Moving on to some of the drivers of our operational and financial performance, which has enabled us to increase adjusted earnings per share by 9%, up 9%, to 3.8 pence in the first half, supporting our fully covered projected dividend for 2026 of 7.3 pence. Firstly, we've seen a 6% increase in passing rent on the reviews settled in the period. This is equivalent to 3.2% on an annualised basis We've signed 29 asset management deals across the portfolio, new projects, lease re-gears, new lettings, with a combined yield on cost around 6% achieved on a relatively modest capital outlay. Our EPRA cost ratio is now below 9%, reflecting the scale benefits of the Assura merger, the efficiency of how we run the business, and the speed at which we've been able to deliver merger synergies. The security and longevity of our income supports the stable valuations in our sector. This has delivered a modest valuation surplus and our net initial yield has remained at 5.4% and our adjusted NTA is unchanged at 104 pence per share. At the time of the merger with Assura in late 2025, we very clearly laid out the strategic objectives we were focused on to ensure we delivered the expected value from this transaction. Now I'm pleased to report we've made substantial progress towards achieving all of these and continue to focus on delivering for all stakeholders. The integration and delivery of cost synergies is almost complete. The enlarged business is working together well across the portfolio, led by the new EXCO, and over 90% of cost synergies have now been delivered. Our deleveraging plan remains on track, primarily through the establishment of a planned private hospital joint venture, which I will talk you through shortly. We will also complete the planned transfer of £103 million of PHP assets into our joint venture with USS. I've also completed £8 million worth of targeted disposals with more to follow. The acquisition bridging facility has largely been repaid and refinanced. We thank our banking partners, both existing and new, for their support on this. And with the final £260 million of bridging facilities to be repaid, when we realised the proceeds from our private hospital joint venture transaction in the next few weeks. It was very pleasing that we saw reduced credit margins of approximately 40 basis points on these new facilities, evidencing yet again the scaled benefits of the enlarged business. Now I'll give you an update on the joint venture we are establishing on our £0.7 billion private hospital portfolio. Terms have been agreed on an exclusive basis with a global long-term institutional investor and we are currently well advanced through due diligence. The terms which we've agreed are for the JV to be on a 50-50% ownership basis on day one with optionality to adjust the ratio in the future with PHP acting as the asset manager to the joint venture. This is an important long-term strategic partnership for PHP with a high quality investor. As well as progressing on our deleveraging objective, this will allow us to retain a meaningful financial interest in these growth assets, which are performing well in a resilient market with future growth potential. As well as improving our returns, through ongoing management fees we have the ability to earn development and performance fees over time and we continue to advance discussions and are on target to complete later in the summer as we set out previously and the proceeds we receive will land at a perfect time and we will repay our bridging facilities in the next few weeks. We are very excited about this partnership and look forward to announcing a successful completion in the coming weeks. Before I hand over to Rich Hill, I just wanted to set out where PHP currently sits in respect of our financial policies, our future targets, and where we expect these important metrics to move in the short and medium term. Firstly, we continue on our journey to be a fully unsecured borrower, and we've made strong progress in this regard over recent months, and we expect to be 80% unsecured in the near term with a 90% target. Our LTV will be positively impacted by our disposals into the joint ventures as well as the positive valuation impact from delivering rental growth. This will take our loan to value short term into the low 50s and from there we will deliver additional capital recycling and valuation gains over time with below 50% LTV as our future target. Similarly, and equally as important, our net debt to EBITDA ratio and interest cover will improve from already robust levels as we progress through the deleveraging steps I've set out on previous slides. And we seek a strong investment grade credit rating on the whole group in the near future. At this point in the cycle, With secure government-backed income and the stability and future growth in our portfolio valuation, we are very comfortable with our LTV being above target in the short term. Also, our weighted average interest rate will come down as we repay the acquisition bridging facilities and we will return to a greater proportion of our debt being fixed or hedged. Overriding all of this is a secure income portfolio with over 80% of future income government-backed with a strong investment grade underpin. I will now hand you over to Richard to talk you through a strong set of financial results. Thank you.

Thank you, Mark, and good morning to everybody online. Firstly, looking at the financial highlights of the first six months of 25, the benefits of the combination with Assura are now flowing through to the enlarged group, with strong earnings growth and operational performance in the first six months of the year. Adjusted earnings increased to £98 million, driven by a full six-month contribution from the acquisition of Assura, which added an additional £50 million of income. The adjusted earnings per share increased by 9% to 3.8p. Like-for-like rental growth generated an extra £4 million of income, an increase of 6% over the previous passing rent, or just over 3% on an annualised basis, driven primarily by rent review growth. To date, we have delivered over £8 million, or 92% of the cost-saving synergies identified on the combination with Assura. Together with our continued tight control on costs has resulted in the cost ratio falling from around 10% 8.7% in the first six months of the year. The underlying portfolio generated a valuation surplus of £18 million, driven by rental growth, which generated £29 million of value, offset by just one basis point of yield expansion, or a deficit of £11 million. The yields across the portfolio have generally remained flat in the first half, which is consistent with the second half of last year. Notwithstanding increased UK guilt rates and volatility in the interest rate market, we have not seen any impact on values in our sector, which continue to benefit from the security of our predominantly government-backed income and near-full occupancy. The investment portfolio and adjusted net tangible asset both remain unchanged at £6 billion The portfolio continues to benefit from strong fundamentals with 99% occupancy, a long 10-year vault and 76% government-backed income, supported by a strong demographic and political backdrop. Looking at the financing, PHP has continued to receive strong support from both existing and new lenders to the group. We have made good progress in the first six months of 26 to refinance the majority of the bridging facility put in place to finance the acquisition of Assura, together with a number of short-term bank facilities across both PHP and Assura, which marks an important step on the group's journey to becoming a fully unsecured borrower. A total of £1.2 billion has been refinanced, including an £800 million term involving credit facility with a club of eight banks, including three new lenders to the group. Additionally, we've taken on a new £400 million two-year term loan to refinance most of the bridging facility. This now leaves just under £260 million outstanding, which is expected to be repaid from the proceeds arising from our deleveraging in the second half of the year. The new debt facilities also reflect some of the benefits of scale arising from the combination with credit margins 40 basis points cheaper than the facilities being replaced. The group's average cost of debt remains broadly unchanged at a low 3.8% and is expected to fall further to 3.5% in the second half of the year once we have completed the deleveraging activities. The group now has £300 million of undrawn liquidity headroom after capital commitments. Turning to rental growth, We continue to be encouraged by the improving organic rental growth outlook generated by the portfolio. In the first six months of 26 we delivered an extra £4 million of additional rental income derived mainly from rent review activities which delivered an annualised growth rate of 3.2% slightly ahead of previous guidance at 3%. Importantly, open market reviews delivered an uplift of 6.3% over the previous passing rent. The rent review teams are now fully integrated and sharing rent review evidence across the enlarged portfolio which will assist with future negotiations and a significant future synergy for the enlarged group. The rental growth benefits arising from the combination will flow through into future years. The portfolio is currently list of a low weighted average rent of £200 per square metre with our asset management activities seeing rents rebased with uplifts of around 15% being achieved. Five new developments completed in 2025 delivered an average rent of £260 per square metre and the new development pipeline established in 26 across four schemes and seeing rents rebased even higher to a weighted average of £280 per square metre. This new rental evidence clearly sets a positive outlook for future rental growth and we believe the reversing potential of the portfolio remains strong as new rental evidence is set and we continue to target growth in excess of 3% per annum. PHP has now achieved its 30-year anniversary of consecutive dividend growth and we approach the future determined to grow earnings to support the Group's progressive dividend policy on a fully covered basis. There are three key pillars to achieving future earnings growth. Portfolio with strong reversion potential that will deliver future rental growth, supported by the security of our long-term, predominantly government-backed income stream. A strong focus on cost control with one of the lowest effort cost ratios in the sector. We have already delivered the majority of the £9 million of cost savings energies forecast and expect the future ratio to be below 9%. A strong track record in balance sheet liability management with strong support and good access to various sources of capital. In the first half of the year we have already managed to capitalise on the benefits of scale with credit margins 40 basis points lower on £1.2 billion of debt refinance with more refinancing initiatives expected in the second half of the year. I will now hand you back to Mark who will take a closer look at the group's property portfolio.

Thank you, Richard. It's a proud moment for Richard and I to be presenting such strong results to you this morning, and this being the first period of full consolidation of the BHP and Assura business. Now, I'd like to spend some time highlighting the attractiveness of the healthcare markets we operate in and some of the asset value-creating activities we're currently working on. PHP operates in three resilient healthcare markets and the majority of our portfolio is primary care assets in the UK. Since 2016, PHP has also built the leading primary care portfolio in Ireland and the merger with Assura saw us inherit a quality portfolio of private hospitals. The team that have come across the PHP during the merger have a leading expertise in private hospitals having invested in the space for nearly 10 years. You can see on this slide the fundamentally strong investment characteristics of each of these markets. Strong demand, fundamental tailwinds in the market, long leases, tenants offering a secure covenant, rental growth often linked to inflation and high quality community based assets which are well invested with high Return Prospects. Crucially, all three of these markets can be accessed using PHP's unique platform in the growth sector, which has been enhanced through our best of both approach to the merger, and we have good market share, giving us size and scale advantages. I'd now like to move on to neighbourhood health centres, which is an exciting growth opportunity which will enhance PHP's future prospects. We were pleased to see that in April 2026 the NHS published its final guidance on what makes a neighbourhood health centre of the future. This is a further step forward on the plans to move services out of hospitals and into the community following on from the NHS 10 year plan published in 2025. The Labour government have continued to place a high priority on improving the NHS and the new Prime Minister has a long-standing belief in prevention being better than treatment. Alongside the launch of the guidance, the first wave of 27 existing buildings identified as neighbourhood health centres were announced. including three PHP assets which I visited with the team recently and I felt really excited about this opportunity for the future. These are all expected to have government grant capital available to improve the assets to extend the range of health services available to be delivered from our neighbourhood health centre. We will continue to work closely with local NHS stakeholders to assist in meeting their needs and we expect this to present opportunities for PHP over the coming years as I will show you as we walk through this morning's case studies. Firstly to Western Superman and the right time to present some of the value creating work we are doing in our portfolio. Western Supermare is a really good example of a new-built development capable of being designated as a Neighbourhood Health Centre when we complete this in 2027. I visited this asset under construction three weeks ago and it's a large five-storey community healthcare asset, bringing together GPs, the local health board, including the relocation of a number of specialist healthcare and a community interest company supporting adult and child health services. It's a great example of how PHP can work with capital from our primary care joint venture with USS to deliver returns for shareholders and critical new healthcare infrastructure for the NHS. This is a £19 million project, part funded by an NHS grant and only requires £2.3 million worth of PHP investment. And the rental yield on this investment is boosted by PHP earning ongoing asset management fees, as well as an attractive development fee, meaning our income returns are expected to be over 8%, total returns well into double digits. Most importantly, it also provides strong rental tones in this case in the mid to high 200s rent per square metre and that captures build cost inflation for rent reviews on other medical centres in the county of Somerset and beyond. Working with the joint venture in this way is capital light, it's risk controlled and for PHP shareholders delivers attractive returns and vital rental evidence and demand for future Next to the Tepbury Medical Centre in Gloucestershire. This £5 million neighbourhood scheme in Tepbury is also being funded through the joint venture with USS. And the benefits are similar to Western Supermare. It's capital light, risk controlled. Our returns are boosted by the development fees, the ongoing asset management fees. and it sets a helpful rental tone in this region where PHP has a good representation and a portfolio of assets. TEPRI is a good working example of opportunities we will continue to see around the country where new housing developments require new healthcare infrastructure to meet their Section 106 requirements. And our experience tells us that no one is better at unlocking these opportunities than PHP. and we work with the NHS both locally and nationally to deliver these schemes which then allows the housing development to go ahead. And the growing population of Tetbury get a brand new purpose-built medical centre, a new pharmacy, we get a 30-year lease, fixed rental uplifts, a high yield on cost in excess of 9% and double-digit total returns unlocking vital rental evidence along the way. Tetbury is a great scheme and the team is well-placed to do more of these in the future. I'm also pleased to report that in addition to Western Supermare and TEP3 with a growing pipeline of UK primary care schemes that we expect to be funded through our joint venture with Brockworth and Colford, the next schemes we hope to get over the line and yield on costs projected to be in excess of 12%. The benefits for PHP are clear, with strong rental evidence generated, with control through capital-like projects, with the corresponding stronger returns aided by our ability to generate value through development and ongoing asset management fees. I'd just like to conclude on this part of the presentation by saying the following. These opportunities are only created because of the expertise and the relationship the PHP has developed over many, many years and the Assura merger has enhanced the reach and depth of these opportunities. These particular schemes are inflation linked, removing ourselves and the NHS from any future district value constraints, enabling development to be set at higher rents per square metre, providing longevity and certainty to future cash flows. The USSJV is the perfect partner to build this model with size and scale and has an effective cost of capital. They bring a strong understanding of infrastructure investing and a strong social impact that we provide from PHP the expertise and the platform for growth to co-invest. And it's exciting win-win situation for all stakeholders and it's our pleasure to present these opportunities to you today. I also wanted to case study some of the good work we are doing on the asset management side of the business. This includes a 100% owned asset in Wakefield, Yorkshire, illustrates how PHP's proven capability in asset management can drive value in the portfolio. The Trinity Medical Center serves over 27,000 patients. It was coming to the end of its lease cycle. We've worked in collaboration with the local practice, the local health board. We've worked up a scheme to extend and refurbish the property, adding 13 additional clinical rooms. This increases the capacity for additional community-based services, including a minor operations suite, out-of-hours services, maternity, midwifery, and the local MSK team. As well as an improved rental zone of the property, we have a new 25 year lease in place, a strong valuation gain in excess of the 4 million invested in the property and improved energy efficiency. This project has delivered an attractive yield on cost and double digit profit on cost. The final assets I wanted to highlight to you today is our £21 million development of a new private hospital and day surgery clinic in Peterborough. Building on a strong relationship with the tenant, Ramsey Healthcare, for whom we have now developed six new build schemes, the unit will create additional capacity in the area, primarily for NHS referred procedures, such as orthopaedics, as well as accommodating an outpatient clinic and diagnostic unit. Private hospital schemes such as this offer long 25 or 30 year leases with strong inflation linked growth on rent reviews being run by a proven operator experiencing growing demand supporting a healthy rent cover. This asset is expected to transfer into the new private hospital joint venture when complete and the PHP team and I are looking forward to attending the topping up ceremony on the 12th August. Before I reach my concluding remarks, I wanted to remind you of the PHP investment case, which has been significantly enhanced by the transformational merger with Assura, our joint ventures in primary care and private hospitals, and our lower cost of capital going forward. Many of you will be familiar with the specific points on this slide, so I won't go through each and every one, but our portfolio of Modern healthcare infrastructure assets offer investors the rare opportunity to access a specialist asset class with exceptionally high quality, secure cash flows in a resilient healthcare market that is a growth sector. And over a sustained 30-year period, the management team have demonstrated an ability to deliver sector-leading financial performance and returns for investors. This is a really exciting time for PHP shareholders. The strength of the platform is second to none and the future growth prospects are compelling. So to conclude, we've delivered another strong set of results and our post-transaction objectives remain on track. The synergies are materially delivered. The integration is substantially complete. Our deleveraging is well on track. Our refinancing plans are well progressed and our bridge facilities will be repaid in the next few weeks. PHP's 30-year track record of dividend growth is driven by the quality of our portfolio, our expert team, operational excellence and close to full occupancy. PHP is an income compounder. Our portfolio offers infrastructure like characteristics with long leases, secure income Almost no vacancy. Our earnings growth is supported by our operational capability, which drives recurring value with a positive trend in rental growth, enhanced volume of asset management deals, very close control on costs, and a growing pipeline of risk-controlled development opportunities we see continued momentum across the group. I'd like to conclude by saying whilst there's been a lot of decent corporate activity at PHP we remain very focused on the task to deliver shareholder value and a growing dividend backed by a portfolio of secure long-term and predictable income. That concludes our presentation today. Thank you very much for taking the time to attend and this will now be an opportunity where we invite you to Ask the management team any questions. Thank you.