Good morning and welcome to the Primary Health Properties PLC investor presentation. Throughout this recorded meeting, investors will be in a listen-only mode. Questions are encouraged and can be submitted at any time by the Q&A tab situated in the right corner of your screen. Just simply type in your questions and press send. Please note that given takeover code restrictions, management are limited to what they can say in respect to the recommended combination with Assura. I'd now like to hand you over to CEO Mark Davies and Richard Howell, CFO. Good morning.
Good morning, everybody. Welcome to our Investor Meets Company update, following on from a successful and well-attended Capital Markets Day last week. Thank you very much for attending and being with us this morning. We had a very positive Capital Markets Day last week, and I hosted a fireside chat with Sir Jeremy Hunt, former Chancellor and Health Secretary. The overriding message is, following the government's 10-year health plan published only three weeks ago, PHP is primed for growth. We strongly believe the 10-year plan is good for PHP. Our results announced last week evidence we have reached an inflection point for our sector with a significant growth opportunity ahead.
With everything that's been going on in our marketplace at the moment, we felt it was important to give an update on where we believe things are, both in terms of the proposed acquisition of Assura PLC and with the publication of the 10-year plan for the NHS issued a few weeks ago. Before we get started, just a little bit of housekeeping. As you all well know, we are currently in an offer period, and there are limitations as to what we can and can't talk to you about this morning. There will be an opportunity to ask questions to management, and we are well-rehearsed on the takeover code rules, which I know you will all respect. Moving on to today's agenda, we have a very interesting agenda for you. We will ensure to get through everything on time to give you the opportunity to ask those questions.
Firstly, I will describe what I see as a very positive market backdrop at the moment, with a significant opportunity for further growth ahead. Richard will give a brief overview of the financials we published last week. It's a strong set of results published during a week that Assura also published a positive financial performance. For both companies to have published such good results in the same week strengthens the belief that we have come through the bottom of the cycle and are well-positioned for future growth. At a busy time for the company, with corporate activity, we remain focused on delivering value for shareholders, and you will see this in Richard's presentation. We'll also look at the recommended combination with Assura. There are a couple of areas where we'd like to spend a little bit more time.
One is around the capital structure and the future debt position, as we recognize this is an important area. We are making good progress with our plans for disposal of assets into a joint venture, and I will provide a confident update. I'll move on to the 10-year plan, specifically looking at how this impacts us today and, more importantly, how we think it will have a positive impact on the future. This government is committed to reforming the NHS, and moving patients into primary care is a key foundation of that plan. This is a key driver of our growth, and it creates opportunities for us to add value.
I thought it was just worth reminding ourselves, particularly for those we're meeting for the first time this morning and are new to the story, as to why PHP is in such a strong position and why we are confident about our future and the investment case. Our population is getting older. We're living longer, and that is resulting in a demographic tailwind which drives demand for healthcare and its infrastructure. Because of that, we have seen enormous pressure put on our hospitals in a way that is clearly unsustainable. The shift towards waiting lists at a phenomenally high primary care is going to be a key part of the future. Sadly, a lot of the premises in the sector are not fit for purpose.
We still have doctors working out of what would be described as sort of front rooms in domestic Victorian properties, a far cry from what is required now and in the future. We own a really high-quality property portfolio that is fit for purpose and one that's got very attractive rental returns, but more importantly, also provides an outstanding environment from which to deliver community care. The bulk of our rental income is government-backed, whether here in the U.K. or in Ireland. The reliability of our income has enabled us to deliver a fantastic track record in terms of growing our secured dividend out for 29 consecutive years. We're seeing rental growth, which will continue to grow in the future, and Richard's got a really good slide on this in a moment.
We're now starting to see double-digit increase in London rents approved by the district valuer, making new schemes more attractive, such as Kilburn Park, which we will showcase later. We've got a secure long-term income stream with a WALT close to 10 years, and we continue to see new leases being taken at between 20- 30 years. This reflects the quality of the portfolio, the quality of the assets that we own, and their importance for the future. Finally, we maintain a strict control on costs, and we have an efficient capital structure. This is important because one of the topics that investors have raised with us on the combination with Assura is our leverage, which will move up temporarily. I can assure you we are already working on deleveraging plans, and we'll share more of that later. Plus, we will deliver the synergies that we have announced.
Now I'll pass on to our CFO, Richard Howell, for the financial update.
Thanks, Mark, and good morning, everyone. I'm going to run through the key financial highlights from the 2025 interim results, together with a more detailed look at rental growth, which we know is a key topic for investors. At the start of July, we announced a trading update with the key half-year numbers, so most of this information has been in the market for a number of weeks. We're also going to come back and look at the capital structure of the combined group later in the presentation, and we know this is a very important topic to focus on. Looking at the key financial highlights for the six months to June 2025, the group's annualized rent roll now stands at GBP 158 million, and in the first six months of the year, net rental income was just under GBP 79 million, an increase of GBP 2.4 million, or 3%.
This reflects an additional GBP 1.9 million of additional income from completed rent reviews and asset management projects, together with an GBP 800,000 contribution from the acquisition of the Laya Health and Wellbeing Clinic earlier in the year, offset by a small increase in non-recoverable property costs. After interest and administrative expenses, adjusted earnings increased by GBP 1 million- GBP 47.3 million, an increase of 2.2%. Capital expenditure on the acquisition of the Laya Health and Wellbeing Clinic and asset management activity took the loan-to-value ratio to 48.6%, while still within the group's 40%- 50% target range.
The group's portfolio now comprises 517 assets valued at GBP 2.8 billion, and after several years of valuation declines, the improving rental growth outlook and stabilization of property yields resulted in a positive revaluation surplus of just under GBP 20 million, with rental growth in the period generating a surplus of GBP 29 million, offset by the impact of a small outward yield movement of three basis points, or a deficit of GBP 9 million. The above surplus was a key reason for the increase in adjusted net tangible asset value per share to 106.2p, and if we include the dividends paid in the first six months of the year, we generated a total accounting return of 4.5%.
PHP has continued with its progressive dividend policy and, to date, has paid or declared three quarterly dividends equivalent to 7.1p, or a 2.9% increase over 2024, and this marks PHP's 29th year of consecutive dividend growth. Dividend cover was maintained at 100% in the first half of the year, with results supporting the robust portfolio metrics of occupancy close to 100%, 88% of our income paid for by the U.K. or Irish governments, and a long WALT of just over nine years. The average cost of debt for the group remains at a competitive 3.4%, unchanged from the 2024 year-end, with 100% of its net debt fixed or hedged out. We also have one of the lowest EBITDA cost ratios in the sector, and we saw this fall further to 9.8% as a result of a cost reduction program completed last year.
We've continued with our disciplined approach to investment, with a focus on driving income from our existing portfolio from revenues and asset management projects and development opportunities primarily focused on Ireland. Just looking at rental growth now in a bit more detail, like-for-like rental growth from both rent reviews and asset management delivered an extra GBP 2.2 million on an annualized basis, or an increase of 1.4% in the first six months of the year. Rent reviews delivered an extra GBP 2.1 million, so the majority of that increase of annualized income, an increase of 8.6% over the previous passing rent, or 3% on an annualized basis. Importantly, open market value rental growth continues to improve with an annualized increase of 2.3%, and Assura also reported a very similar number at the start of last week.
However, we're now starting to see open market value rental growth accelerate, with the first reviews coming through from 2022- 2024 when inflation was at elevated levels, and in that period, we saw rents increase by 12.3% or 3.6% on an annualized basis. This improving rental growth outlook was supported also by Assura's annual results, and they reported a total increase of GBP 4.5 million, or an increase of 6.1%. Additionally, we continue to progress an advanced pipeline of asset management projects where we are seeing rental values growing by around 15% from an average GBP 195 per square meter to GBP 223 per square meter, which are still very affordable rents and have very little chance of challenge in the future. We continue to see strong rental conversion potential in both portfolios, with a growing momentum in the future rental growth outlook.
I'm now going to hand you back to Mark, who will go through the recommended combination with Assura.
Thank you, Richard. Very insightful and positive momentum on rental growth, which is hugely encouraging. Since we stood here a few months ago at our last Capital Markets Day in October, we've been in extensive discussions with Assura, and we were delighted when the board recommended our offer on the 22nd of June . I'd now like to talk you through why the combination of these two companies is extremely compelling, with significant strategic and financial benefits to both sets of shareholders. Firstly, we believe there's a real earnings-accretive opportunity for shareholders by delivering cost, operational, and asset management synergies. We also expect that our cost of capital will come down. We have estimated annualized run rate synergies of approximately GBP 9 million. Given PHP's operating model, we expect to continue to have one of the lowest EBITDA cost ratios in the sector, and we're also targeting having low fixed cost long-term debt facilities.
We're very pleased that Fitch recently reaffirmed the investment grade rating on Assura's debt at the time our offer is due to complete. We will be able to deliver scale benefits with a very large social infrastructure portfolio, and the portfolio will be covered largely by government-backed income, and we will retain strong financial discipline going forward. We'll be one of the largest U.K.-listed REITs, giving us greater index weighting, liquidity, and investors the opportunity to invest in one of the leading assets of its type in the U.K. in a sector with strong structural growth. There is a growing realization that we have to improve the quality of the U.K.'s healthcare infrastructure, and to do it in a way that is for the public good. The combination of PHP and Assura plays to this.
We believe the private sector will continue to play an important role in delivering quality community primary care assets and supporting the government in its plans. We see significant valuation and rental growth uplift, particularly when the district valuers start to look at what the market rent is going forward and are encouraged by government to support investment. Finally, it goes without saying that PHP has an undeniable track record going back over many years. We really do believe that we have one of the strongest management teams in the sector, and we're very committed to the future growth of the business.
We are confident in delivering all the scale benefits to shareholders, and with an M&A track record of getting on with integration, driving synergies, doing this the right way, and benefiting from the best of both people from both companies, the combination of these two companies is good for the market and both sets of shareholders. One or two things which we'd just like to point out to you. We are going to maintain a progressive dividend policy payable on a quarterly basis. We're targeting between 80%- 90% of our income being government-backed. Ours is very much a story that is focused around secure income and rental growth. We're looking at 3%+ growth on a risk-adjusted basis. This is attractive on long-term secure income. As I mentioned, we are seeing continued demand for longer leases, typically 20+ years , giving us long-term visibility.
There will be an opportunity for a small amount of risk-controlled development in the future. We do need to see district valuers move rental values in the right direction for this to happen, and there are encouraging signs. This is now happening, especially in London. As I mentioned before, we're starting to see double-digit rental growth in London, but the schemes to be tendered in London may need third-party support, such as local authorities, to get them off the ground. Recent activity is certainly a move in the right direction. We do need to see similar moves outside of London in terms of rental value, but we do believe this will come, particularly now that Wes Streeting has said publicly that areas in need will be prioritized. In Ireland, our development pipeline is progressing nicely, and in appendix slide 25, you can see three live projects that we have advanced.
I just want to touch on the financial framework for the future. As I said, we are very much targeting investment grade, triple B+ or better, and with the size and quality of the portfolio, this is very achievable. The combined group could start off with an LTV of approximately 55%, above our target range of 40%- 50%, but the intention is to bring that down through asset disposals into a strategic JV and to do this promptly. We've always managed with financial discipline, and there is no intention to change that approach. The combination with Assura will give us access to a wider pool of capital, which we believe can be obtained at a lower cost.
I'm now going to hand over to Richard, who's going to talk through the capital structure on the combination and talk about the strong support that we have from the capital markets.
Thanks, Mark. It's been a very busy six-month period to address the various financing requirements for the combination, and I'm going to focus on two areas. A, the activity to date, and also the next steps following a successful combination. As Mark has already mentioned, we continue to receive very strong support from the capital markets for the proposed combination. Interest from the debt market has been very strong, and good support has been received from both existing and new debt lenders. This is evidenced by the new GBP 1.2 billion bridging and backstop facility with City, Lloyds, and NatWest. This facility will be used to pay for the GBP 408 million cash component of our offer. The backstop facility, subject to change and control events, will have short-dated maturities in both companies and also provide the large group with around GBP 300 million of undrawn liquidity.
Fitch have also confirmed that Assura will remain investment grade following the combination, and consequently, their GBP 900 million of listed bonds will remain in place, and no change or control event will take place. We've also obtained change and control waivers on GBP 416 million of Assura debt facilities in respect of the revolving credit facility and GBP 266 million term loan with Barclays used to finance the private hospital acquisition last year. We've also restated this facility for a further two years with extension options to 2029. In the background, we continue to progress discussions with private placement loan holders and other banks, including several new potential lenders, all keen to be involved with the combined group. We expect capital markets to remain receptive and open to the combined group, as they have done historically for both PHP and Assura on a standalone basis.
Assuming the combination takes place on the 12th of August, there are several important next steps which we continue to work on. Reducing leverage back to the 40%- 50% target range continues to be a key priority for the PHP team, and Mark is surely going to discuss the progress being made regarding joint ventures and disposals to achieve this. However, we also focus on refinancing and turning out the balance of the bridging facility, together with refinancing Assura's short-duration private placement loan notes. Work regarding this continues, including a potential new convertible bond of around GBP 300 million, and PHP shareholders have already provided approval for this. Private placement debt or potentially a new listed bond, both those markets remain receptive and open to potential new issues. As originally planned, as part of the new bridging facility, convert part of it to a new revolving credit facility.
As discussed at the Capital Markets Day for PHP in October 2024, we also plan to accelerate the process of moving PHP's existing debt structure, which is secured, to an unsecured basis, starting with its GBP 450 million of revolving credit facilities we'd originally planned for 2027 and 2028. I'm currently restricted from providing any forward-looking guidance on the future capital structure, but we intend to provide further information on this in due course following completion of the combination. Back to Mark, who's now going to talk to the joint ventures and disposals.
Thank you, Richard. We're making good progress on joint venture partners and our disposal strategy. We've already engaged with a number of highly credible counterparties and are moving swiftly through this process. A shortlist is being finalized, and our preferred structure remains a strategic joint venture. We are targeting a short-term completion. As a consequence of these actions, we expect to reduce our loan-to-value into the 40%- 50% target range through the receipt of proceeds. As part of our JV discussions, we are thinking strategically about the private hospitals, where we think the growth prospects are good, as we saw last week from Assura's results. With a waiting list in excess of 8 million, we see guaranteed growth in rents supported by high demand, and our preference is to retain an economic interest in private hospitals in a strategic joint venture, and we will continue to evaluate all options.
As a reminder, Assura has an existing JV with USS, which has to date acquired GBP 159 million of primary care assets, with a publicly stated capacity for GBP 400 million. Finally, the good progress we have made on delivering a strategic joint venture partner has been helped by the fact that we announced this objective at our Capital Markets Day last October, and there are an increased number of global and U.K. funds looking at U.K. healthcare, who like the security of the income and the potential for growth. This slide will be familiar to many of you in the meeting with us today, but just to recap, our recommended offer to Assura shareholders is part cash, circa 25%, which equates to GBP 0.125 and a special dividend, and 75% in PHP shares.
There's also a mix and match facility, and the daily closing look-through value of the PHP offer has consistently remained ahead of the consortium since 16th of May, two and a half months ago. Thank you to all existing and new shareholders for your continued support. The final bullet on this slide is following our FDI approval in Ireland. There are no further regulatory clearances, and our transaction is not conditional on CMA, and this work stream is also progressing very well. Next steps. Assura shareholders are urged to accept our offer as soon as possible, and therefore we can go unconditional, so please do take action. Unlike a scheme, we need shareholders to take action and accept the offer. This is not a scheme. It is an offer. We are very grateful to our shareholders. 99.3% of those voting approved the Assura transaction on the 1st of July.
Finally, the deadline for accepting our offer is the 12th of August, just over a week away, and the mix and match facility will remain open until the date our offer becomes unconditional. For those Assura shareholders that would like more shares or like more cash, you should act on this promptly. Let's now look at the 10-year plan. It's very clear that primary care and neighborhood health centers, like PHP's, will be at the core of relieving pressure on hospitals. These neighborhood centers will provide a broad range of services in a local community setting, and the government has quite rightly targeted the areas of greatest need and health inequalities. This is something that we welcome, and with over 500 assets across the U.K. within the PHP estate, we are well placed to help the government deliver on its plans.
The plan is still developing on how funding will work for new development, but we can see that there are opportunities within the existing budget, how it can be reallocated, and how we can help expand the services offered out of existing hubs through our asset management program, and the private sector will play a big part. It will no doubt become clear in the future, and we'll have some insightful views on that, and we'll discuss in a moment, and you will have seen that for those who attended our Capital Markets Day last week. We are able to mobilize quickly. We have the relationships, the skill set to deliver the improvement in care that's so desperately needed. Our message is quite clear that the strategic shift from hospital into community settings is a credible one, and more on the 10-year plan in a moment.
I'm now going to move on to three case studies. Many of our existing centers already operate on a multidisciplinary basis. We've got some very good examples of purpose-built buildings, such as the one on the screen in front of us in Eastbourne. Eastbourne was actually developed back in 2021, but it's a real-life example of the government's plan to deliver healthcare infrastructure in neighborhood locations, delivering a wide range of patient services, transferring services away from hospital settings to modern purpose-built community spaces. Eastbourne has the look and feel of what the government is calling a neighborhood health center, which is why we've showcased it in today's presentation. Next to Wakefield, where we have a live example of doing this on site today. This is the Trinity Medical Center in Wakefield, a well-established community asset that was built over 25 years ago, and we've owned it through that period.
Patient demand has grown significantly during our ownership to over 27,000 patients. Trinity now employs over 100 medical staff, including 16 GPs, eight nurses, plus other healthcare professionals. Trinity offers a wide range of NHS and additional patient services, including routine general practice, long-term condition clinics, nursing, preventative services, family health, mental health, and minor surgery and procedures. This high patient demand has allowed us to invest in the asset, and our current asset management, where we're on site, will deliver a new 25-year lease, additional space in excess of 2,100 sq ft, a new pharmacy building, additional double-digit rent, and a creative profit on cost over 13%.
The reason we have showcased this asset to you today is we feel this is close to what a neighborhood health center of the future will look like, and we are extremely well placed to do many more of these from our existing portfolio around the U.K. as the government moves patient services from hospitals into the community. We are now going to show you a video of Kilburn Park, which will take just a few minutes. It's a medical center that we developed and opened only a few weeks ago, and the themes from this highly creative new development are it's a community asset, big social impact, increased patient demands now and in the future, house building and regeneration, creating opportunities for new neighborhood health centers, a proactive local authority.
We are creating critical U.K. social infrastructure assets, moving patient services from hospitals into primary care, which is something at PHP we are very good at. I will now play the video at Kilburn Park.
We first became involved in the project back in 2018, and it's arisen as a longstanding requirement as part of wider estate regeneration by Ashland and Baruch Brent. They're regenerating their South Kilburn estate, which is around about 2,500 dwellings, and they've been doing so over a period of the last 15 years. This phase is called Peel Precinct, and it's designed as the civic heart of the redevelopment of the estate.
It's been a project that's been around for a very long time, and Brent, as a Councillor, is one of the more proactive in terms of working with the NHS in terms of placement. The original concept was that it would be a facility big enough for three GP practices. As it turned out, Kilburn Park actually merged with another practice, so they're currently in occupation, but there is significant capacity within the building to grow. There is an additional capacity for a growth of about 6,000 on the patient list in terms of dealing with future growth linked to the regeneration of the area.
We have a range of patients from all over the world with all sorts of languages. It was a very deprived area, and I think part of the regeneration is changing that level of deprivation. We're looking forward to inviting a lot more of the new residents that have moved into the buildings that surround us. The old center was in a Victorian building. The old building was listed, and we couldn't make adaptations, so we were restricted to using one floor for anyone that had a walking stick or used a wheelchair. Now all of our patients can access all the rooms.
We have here a range of room sizes which enable different uses for the same patient-facing rooms. We've also a flexible working space for clinical staff, which enables the incorporation of digital and remote consultation as part of their day-to-day conduct.
At the moment, we've got around 7,000 patients, and we can certainly scale up to 13 on-site consultation. We can probably take on more now that we've moved into a bit more of a digital consulting world. The response has been so positive. Everybody really enjoys the decor. Everyone's very happy with the sort of professional level of the rooms, and obviously there's a lot more IT in this building. We've got excellent call system, self-check-in, and there's a lot of information we can pass on to patients now.
The intention with this type of services is to really look at avoidance, so really much more around same-day access in terms of allowing patients to come here for urgent appointments rather than having to go to A&E. The aspiration in terms of building in that capacity in terms of the sizing of the facility is to make sure that as we build up to those numbers, there is that enhanced range of services to try and prevent people going from the hospital in the first place.
I think Tony and I have worked alongside each other six or seven years. We've both been part of the program from conception to first design to delivery, so we have sort of been partners along the way. It's been a very good relationship. I found them really helpful.
In the context of this scheme, it's very important that we partner with third-party developers such as PHP in terms of bringing forward schemes that are of the right standard and actually give us that delivery option moving forward in partnership in terms of then delivering the facility. One of the things that the previous practice didn't have was a treatment room, so they couldn't do tissue viability, for example, which is important to diabetes, and that facility is now available with the support spaces that are required. It does allow the practice to extend that range of service and actually start to look more specifically now that they have the facilities right as to what they could take on board and deliver it properly.
It's delivering on the agenda of broadening and deepening services in the community. What this particular facility enables is for a greater breadth of services to be delivered. The practice here works very closely with the local primary care network, and that is gradually evolving into neighborhood health, which is the government's intention for the delivery of services through primary and community care. What that means is that for service users, for patients, they can access a far greater variety of services local to them rather than having to go to a hospital.
It's been a very successful building, open to first takeovers, which are tendered, and I think everyone's delighted with the outcome.
That's great. Thank you very much for your presentation. We have received a number of questions, so we'll move on to the Q&A session now with the first question here, which really just follows. What's your views on the U.K. government's recently announced 10-year plan for the NHS? How do you see this impacting your sector in the short to medium term?
Thank you. That's a very good question. Firstly, I would say we think that the 10-year plan is very good for PHP and the broader sector, and it was very timely that that came out literally only a few weeks ago. I think it's extremely encouraging to see the government's commitment to strengthening, improving, and reforming the NHS, and one of the three pillars and foundations of this plan is to move patient services from hospital settings into primary care, which plays directly to our strengths and, of course, the longstanding partnerships that we have across the NHS infrastructure. We think we're very well positioned.
The government has already announced 250 neighborhood health centers, new neighborhood health centers, and we think we're very well placed to help and support them deliver those neighborhood health centers in communities around the U.K. by extending and improving existing assets such as Wakefield that we showed you earlier, and the creation of new neighborhood health centers like Eastbourne and like Kilburn Park that we just showed you on the video.
That's great. Thank you very much, Mark. I've got another question here. Are you seeing increased demand for primary care facilities?
Absolutely. I don't think that'll be a surprise to any of our audience this morning that knows us well. The one consistent theme that we see from our portfolio on a day-to-day basis whenever we go out and visit our assets, I do this all of the time, is that there's huge demand for more space, principally driven by growing population, aging population, and the demands on the healthcare system, growing patient lists such as Wakefield. I described that asset during our ownership where the patient list has gone from 6,000- 27,700 during that time, and it just creates demand for more space. Add into that the NHS plan and the strong commitment to move services into primary care that by definition creates that strong demand for more space, and we expect that to continue well into the long term, and that is good for our future prospects.
Perfect. Turning to the next question we have here, what is the latest update on forming a joint venture for Assura's private hospital portfolio?
Thank you. Very good question. It's a question that comes up consistently throughout our shareholder and investor engagement. I said on the earlier slide that we are making very good progress in sort of detailed and advanced discussions, and conversations are taking place with a number of very credible third-party investors, and those conversations are ongoing. We're not able to say any more on this matter at this stage, but hopefully from the slide that we presented to you earlier, that demonstrated our confidence and commitment to delivering this joint venture. The strategy to deliver this strategic joint venture was set out back in October of last year at our Capital Markets Day. The Assura transaction and the private hospitals that Assura owns has created an opportunity to accelerate that strategic objective, and we are very confident about doing that short term.
That's great. Thank you very much, Mark. We have a question from an investor who'd be interested in hearing some more on your operations in Ireland. If you could provide a bit more detail there, that'd be great.
Yes, of course. Coincidentally, I was in Ireland on Tuesday of this week, spending time with the team, with investors, and of course, we have a very high-quality portfolio in Ireland. Ireland is currently 9% of our total portfolio. We have a strategic objective, which we have stated publicly, to take that to 15%. We think we can do that. If you look at our development pipeline in today's appendix and in previous PHP presentations, you can see that 75% or more of our development pipeline is in Ireland for a number of reasons, one of which is that rents and rental levels in Ireland, because they are linked to inflation, are more in line with current market rents and economic rents to enable and allow us to develop and get the return, which is accretive, to shareholders.
We have a team in Ireland of almost 30 people, a fantastic team. We acquired that business only a few years ago. It does give us a competitive advantage to have a team on the ground with relationships with the HSE and other key stakeholders. The model in Ireland is similar to the U.K., but in some ways, it benefits from a sort of second-mover advantage, as my colleagues described to me on Tuesday. If you look at our most recent acquisitions, they happen to be in Ireland, in Ballintemple, just outside of Cork, which is an enhanced community care center, and more recently, the Laya Health and Wellbeing Clinic, again, just outside of Cork.
These are really great assets with great growth potential, and we'd like to do more in Ireland, and we believe we have the right pipeline across the projects that we're working on to generate double-digit returns, and the team on the ground is well placed to deliver that objective for us.
Thank you once again, Mark. We have another question here. What would be the size of the business should PHP and Assura combine?
Do you want to pick that up with me?
Yeah, thank you. Yeah, combined business will become the ninth largest U.K. REIT with a portfolio of around GBP 6 billion of U.K. and Irish assets. The expanded portfolio will comprise long-lead sustainable infrastructure assets, which benefit from increased income security, contract longevity, diversity of product type, geography, revenue type, and lastly, pretty much full occupancy.
Perfect. Thank you very much for that, Richard. We have another question here. How many new properties will be coming on stream this year and next?
In addition to the three Irish developments that Mark mentioned earlier, we have another development in the U.K., which we hope will start on site. Perhaps more importantly, we have a good pipeline of 43 asset management projects and lease regears, which we expect to complete over the next two to three years. These are all around extending and refurbishing our existing assets where we would get new leases, typically in excess of 20 years. As I mentioned earlier in the portfolio, we're seeing rents growing by an impressive 15%, which is an important backdrop for future rental growth across the portfolio.
Thank you for that. Maybe just one final question before asking you for a few closing comments, Mark. Will the merger be significantly earnings-accretive with good cost savings, and will the dividends be slowly increased as before?
Yeah. That's a good question to end on. As we've set out in recent public announcements in respect of the recommended combination with Assura, we expect the proposed transaction to be earnings-accretive to both PHP and Assura shareholders, with approximately GBP 9 million of cost-saving synergies. PHP has a 29-year track record of consecutive dividend growth and will continue to have a progressive dividend policy. Finally, the merger will deliver a lower cost of capital. Hopefully, that's a satisfactory response to that very good question. If it's okay, I will, in the time that we've got, just finish with some closing remarks.
I hope you've been able to see a good understanding of why we're excited about the future prospects. We believe those opportunities are not just confined to the PHP portfolio, but also the combined portfolio with Assura, and that makes us even more excited about the future. I would encourage you, if you didn't attend our Capital Markets Day last week, to watch the fireside chat with Sir Jeremy Hunt and Dame Clare Gerada, a practicing GP for over 30 years and former President of the Royal College of General Practitioners, both of whom endorsed our excitement about the future growth prospects from the 10-year plan. This does bring us to an end of today's formalities. I hope that in listening to the presentations and the discussion, you've got a good feel as to where we are, the opportunities ahead. I've talked about strategic joint ventures.
This is something that you will see us commit to in the future. Our discussions around disposals to deleverage are well advanced with credible third parties. We'll continually assess and evaluate our portfolio to make sure we've got the right assets at all times. Finally, if I could leave you with some key messages to take home with you this morning, we published a good set of results last week, and we're well placed to generate shareholder value. The release of the 10-year plan is a huge positive for us and our future prospects. A combination with Assura would be transformational, creating a business with scale and a lower cost of capital. Rental growth prospects are compelling, and both our portfolio and Assura's are highly reversion-ready.
Dividend growth is sacrosanct, and a 29-year growth track record provides the confidence that our dividend growth will continue and power through 30 years and beyond. PHP is primed for growth. Thank you all for joining us this morning, taking the time to listen to our presentation. Have a great summer, and hope to see you soon.
That's great, Mark, Richard. Thank you very much for updating us today. On behalf of the management team of Primary Health Properties PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good morning to you all.