Grant Thornton advises Assura

Assura plc is the UK’s leading diversified healthcare REIT. The newly formed joint venture is seeking to grow to c. £250 million over the next three years focussing exclusively on investing in essential healthcare infrastructure assets let directly to NHS or general practitioner tenants with rents linked to inflation or with fixed uplifts. 

The Grant Thornton team provided UK tax advice on the optimal structure for the joint venture between Assura plc and the Universities Superannuation Scheme. The Grant Thornton team outlined JV options at the beginning of the process to help both parties understand benefits and drawbacks of the potential structures. 

The Grant Thornton team provided a detailed step plan to implement the chosen structure working closely with other advisors to provide valuable transaction support enabling our client to protect their interests. 

The Grant Thornton team supported our client through several significant changes to the structure, which required changes to be flowed through our advice. This included changing the structure well into the project from an LP to a UK REIT which meant that the Grant Thornton team had to update our report to consider the new fact pattern quickly to enable the transaction to move ahead smoothly to tight timings. 

The Grant Thornton team also provided project management services to support our client ahead of the deadline for completing the transaction. This included joining all party discussions to flush out final key tax matters, having specialist tax advisors available to provide opinions on niche areas and providing updated funds flow as the numbers kept moving in the final few days and hours.