My First Million — Harry Hyman, founder of Primary Health Properties

Accountant Harry Hyman, 67, founded Primary Health Properties in late 1995 — just after receiving a cancer diagnosis. While undergoing chemotherapy in March 1996, he launched PHP on Aim. It joined the main market list of the London Stock Exchange two years later.

Today the company’s portfolio of healthcare-related buildings, worth just under £3bn, comprises 514 properties across the UK and Ireland, serving 6mn patients, or 8.8 per cent of the UK population. They include GP practices, diagnostic centres, community pharmacies and outpatient services.

Based in London, Hyman’s company employs 60 staff in the UK and 25 in Ireland. Hyman, who is now free of cancer, is the owner of Nexus Media Group, which publishes business journals in the health and education sector.

Did you think you would get to where you are?
I was very driven. I remember the essay in my general studies A-level, “Would you be part of the rat race?”, and I wrote that I would. I did not think I would get to where I am. I wanted to do well, but I had no idea I would do this well.

My parents were north London pushy, as their own education had been curtailed. My father came from a poor background. He had to leave school at 14 because his father was very ill. He went on to become a certified accountant. My mother, who was Anglo-Indian, became a shorthand typist and secretary. She had to leave India in 1947 because British people were not allowed to work. She was 16 when she left formal education. My brother and I tried incredibly hard to make our parents proud.

Was your first £1mn profit a major milestone?
Yes, it was in 1998, and I felt on top of the world. It was a momentous occasion for me, financially and emotionally, having just survived chemotherapy and a massive health scare. I celebrated with colleagues and some wonderful bottles of white wine at Scott’s Mayfair.

What impact has inflation had on your business?
The higher cost of finance has slowed our ability to invest, which is a shame because it is delaying the modernisation of the health service. Almost 100 per cent of our debt is fixed for the next seven years, so that is good for the current portfolio. The higher inflation should in time lead to higher levels of rent, which again will be good once the short-term volatility has subsided — maybe in six months. The average level of debt is 45 per cent of the whole portfolio.

Have you found it difficult to recruit staff in recent months?
It does not really apply to this business because we have a high retention rate. The key staff are chartered surveyors and finance people. My secretary, Alanda, has worked for me for 20 years. Several people have been with me for 10 years. About 10 others came to us from university to train as chartered surveyors and have stayed.

How did you fund the business? What did you have to sacrifice?
I teamed up with Christopher Mills from J O Hambro, who provided the £5mn initial capital to start PHP before we were floated. Along the way I have put in £12mn of my own capital. I gave up a well-paid, salaried position, earning £150,000 a year in 1994.

What is the secret of your success?
Hard work and understanding finance. Many years ago, before I started PHP, I had to meet a well-respected professor of finance. It was totally eye-opening that he did not even understand the basics of interest rates. Schools should encourage children to learn about money, like how banks work and what APR is.

What was your best preparation for business?
I think working with Michael Goddard, whom I met in 1983. He was the principal owner and managing director of [financial services group] Baltic and was the closest I have ever met to a financial genius. From him I learnt negotiation, how to do deals, and the art of the possible. I left there in 1994 to set up on my own and he was very upset. I am lucky to have had two brilliant mentors in my career.

Did the pandemic have a lasting effect on your business?
Yes. Initially there were fears that patients would stop going to the doctor and do everything on Zoom or Teams, but that soon proved not to be the case. We did add to the portfolio, but at a slower rate. We were flexible and tried to help the NHS by realigning medical centres to have separate areas for Covid and non-Covid patients.

What are your key criteria when choosing a medical site?
It depends on the size of the patient list. The bigger number of GPs the better. On average GPs have 2,000 patients each. If there is a medical centre for 25,000 people then it is likely to have 12 GPs, and there will be a number of supporting services. That will have a long and viable future.

A medical centre for one or two GPs would not interest us. It will be too small and likely to be consolidated into a larger practice, and then we would be left with the property. Rural GP practices, which account for 25 per cent of our premises, will have a different scale and ambience, being the only medical centre for a catchment area. These have a lower land value, as they are quite often reserved for community use.

GP centres have enormous social impact. It is satisfying to help modernise the infrastructure of the NHS. I would probably not have taken this path had I not developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, or approached it with so much zeal. I had outpatient treatment at the Royal Marsden, Sutton, from October 1995 to May 1996. I thought the NHS was brilliant, particularly the nurses.

What is your basic business philosophy?
To run a business with recurring profits and a positive social impact. We have recently invested a lot of money in the north-west, such as our medical centre in Bolton on four floors, with 12 GPs on one floor and ancillary services on the others.

Do you want to carry on until you drop?
No, I have appointed a very good successor, Mark Davies, former chief executive of Hawthorne Leisure, who has just taken the reins as chief executive. I have become the non-executive chair. I am also non-executive chair of Biopharma Credit, which provides loan finance to biotech and drugs companies.

Have you made any pension provision?
I was 23 when I first contributed to a pension, and I’ve been doing so ever since. I have now stopped because my pension has reached the maximum sum allowable for tax relief. I am a great believer in pensions because you never know what is coming. I’m not going to be disappointed with what I get.

Do you believe in giving something back to the community?
Since being treated by the Royal Marsden Hospital, I have raised more than £500,000 for them, from my own donations, and holding raffles and auctions at dinners.

I founded the International Opera Awards in 2012, offering bursaries to aspiring talent from around the world. Last year, we gave out £100,000 — 20 bursaries of £5,000 each.

Do you believe in leaving everything to your family?
No, because I think it is so hard for charities and cultural organisations to survive. There is a limit to how much any one person should inherit. Money does not necessarily buy you happiness. I will certainly be making appropriate provision for the family, but some good causes too, including the Marsden.

What do you consider as an indulgence?
I love gardening, especially growing different varieties of clematis. You can time the planting to make them bloom year round. I like to complete The Times crossword in under 20 minutes, and I enjoy sharing a good bottle of wine with a friend, typically a French Chardonnay, Puligny-Montrachet.