Belgian nursing home specialist Aedifica unveiled stable Q3 rental income this week and said it is not expecting significant changes to its financial results for the year, despite the Covid-19 pandemic.
Aedifica, a Belgian REIT with a €3.3 bn portfolio spread across 455 assets in the Benelux, Germany, UK and the Nordics, said it is analysing a number of new investment opportunities.
‘In the medium term, the crisis may even result in more opportunities for the sector,’ CEO Stefaan Gielens told PropertyEU. ‘It may lead to growing aggregation in the industry. On the one hand, major operators have digested this crisis better than smaller ones. On the other, I believe the private sector will lead the consolidation movement.’ He continues: ‘Most countries coming out of lockdown need to support the economy and their public deficit has grown tremendously, so I believe public operators might decide to sell properties through sale-and-leasebacks instead of keeping them on their balance sheets.’
Aedifica is expected rental income for the full year to come in at €163 mln, with EPRA Earnings of €97 mln for 2020. This is being boosted by the firm’s acquisition earlier this year of Finnish care home group Hoivatilat which drove rental income up by 40% and gave Aedifica a significant presence across the Nordics.
‘Hoivatilat is an attractive partner to enter the Northern European healthcare real estate market with a high-quality, purpose-built portfolio, a substantial pipeline of development projects and a very experienced management team,’ Aedifica said.
The firm is proposing a gross dividend of €3.00 per share (an increase of 7% compared to the 2018/2019 dividend).
