MedicX Fund has been growing fast. It has raised £40.6m from shareholders since last October, and in February also secured a 20-year debt facility with Aviva. The property company will continue to plough these funds into the primary-care sector, which mainly consists of doctors' surgeries let to the NHS. The rationale for buying in growth is that surgeries still yield 5.9 per cent - healthily above the company's average cost of debt of 4.5 per cent.
Four development projects were completed during the period under review and the company bought five assets through a corporate acquisition. That involved a £1.25m goodwill write-down, which explains much of the fall in reported profits. Adjusted for goodwill charges and other one-off or non-cash items, and adjusted earnings rose 30 per cent to £2.6m.
On a per-share basis, however, MedicX has been running to stand still. Adjusted earnings were flat at 1.3p and underlying net asset value (NAV) fell marginally from 66p to 65.5p. Property revaluations are not quite making up for dividends that are only half covered by adjusted earnings.
MEDICX FUND (MXF) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 78p | MARKET VALUE: | £195m | |
| TOUCH: | 77-79.5p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 81p | LOW: 72p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 7.1% | TRADING PROP: | nil | |
| PREMIUM TO NAV: | 19% | |||
| INVESTMENT PROPERTIES: | £249m | NET DEBT: | 50% | |
| Half-year to Mar 31 | Net asset value (p) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 66.2 | 2.8 | 2.2 | 2.75 |
| 2012 | 65.8 | 0.9 | 1.0 | 2.80 |
| % change | -1 | -68 | -55 | +2 |
Ex-div:16 May Payment: 29 Jun | ||||
