Mutual company Australian Unity and ASX-listed Lendlease (who is accessing cash from Aware Super and Dutch pension fund APG), are the remaining two companies in the race to purchase the fifth biggest retirement village owner/operator RetireAustralia, according to the Financial Review.
RetireAustralia, which is jointly owned by New Zealand PE infrastructure investment company Infratil and NZ Super, has 28 retirement villages and 3,700 homes across QLD, NSW and SA.
The Brisbane-based business, whose CEO is Dr Brett Robinson, made an underlying profit of $56.5 million to the year to March. This was an 87% increase on 12 months earlier, when the business made $30.2 million.
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It said 15 villages are now operating waitlists and overall village occupancy had increased to 95% compared to the industry average of 90%. It also has a sizeable land bank.
Infratil said it would listen to offers for RetireAustralia, with bidding sought around the $1 billion mark. It values its stake in the retirement village operator at $NZ408.9 million. Infratil invested $215M on NYE 2014, a gain of $194M plus the share of annual profits.
With the deadline for bids over, Jarden and E&P are running the auction. The Australian Financial Review reported they have gone back to some of the bidders for clarifications on their first round bids.
