Medical Properties Trust Inc. agreed to acquire 30 acute care hospital facilities in the U.K. for roughly £1.5 billion, and increased its annual run-rate guidance for normalized funds from operations.

The U.K. facilities are expected to offer a GAAP-basis yield of 8.9%, according to a Dec. 23 release by Medical Properties Trust.

The hospital properties are currently leased to affiliates of BMI Healthcare. Circle Health, which has agreed to acquire BMI and will assume its 52 facilities in the U.K., said it would guarantee an initial fixed lease term of the acquired facilities of 30 years and two five-year extensions, as well as annual rent hikes linked to U.K. consumer price inflation, according to the release.

The deal is expected to be funded by cash on hand, including proceeds from U.S.-based healthcare real estate investment trust's recent U.S. dollar equity and sterling-denominated bond offerings as well as borrowings under an unsecured sterling-denominated term loan facility.

The transaction is expected to conclude in the first quarter of 2020.

Medical Properties Trust now expects normalized FFO in the range of $1.65 to $1.68 per share, up from a previous guidance of between $1.56 to $1.58 per share.

The S&P Global Market Intelligence consensus FFO estimate for 2019 is $1.32 per share.