Shares of Medical Properties Trust Inc.
MPW,
+2.49%
rose 0.6% in premarket trading Wednesday, after the real estate investment trust announced a deal to sell an interest in acute care hospitals it owns and raised its earnings outlook. The REIT (MPT) said it reached an agreement with Macquarie Infrastructure Partners V (MIP V) to form a partnership in which an MIP V subsidiary buys a 50% stake in eight Massachusetts-based hospitals currently owned by MPT and operated by Steward Health Care System, in a deal that values the portfolio at $1.78 billion. “This transaction’s portfolio valuation is a 48% increase over our original investment in these hospitals made in 2016, and the compelling value creation reflects the strength of MPT’s underwriting process, which allows our team to identify operators and strategies that are likely to result in long-term and sustained improvement in operating results,” said Medical Properties Trust Chief Executive Edward Aldag. Separately, MPT said based on year-to-date transactions, it raised its guidance for annual net income to $1.81 to $1.85 per share for normalized funds from operations, from $1.72 to $1.76. MPT’s stock has lost 6.0% year to date through Tuesday, while the SPDR Real Estate Select Sector ETF
XLRE,
+1.72%
has soared 30.4% and the S&P 500
SPX,
+0.03%
has advanced 20.4%.