ASX-listed companies Ingenia Communities and Stockland, together with land lease community business Serenitas are running due diligence on Queensland land lease owner and operator Halcyon.
Sources told the Australian Financial Review businesses have about a month to finalise diligence, arrange funding and submit a binding offer for Halcyon, after we reported it had contracted global advisory and management business Rothschild to auction a majority stake in the business in December.
Halcyon is seeking a capital partner to take a majority stake in the business to fund its expansion interstate. The latest report states Halcyon’s shareholders are understood to be willing to sell out in full if there’s a suitable bid made.
Halcyon owns nine communities in Queensland, the first being Halcyon Parks at Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast, which opened in 2004. It has won more than 20 industry awards and it is the largest listed player in the manufactured housing estate market.
Yet its valuation of “north of $500 million” appears ambitious when Canadian investment fund Brookfield paid $1.29 billion for Australia’s only ASX listed pure retirement village operator Aveo back in August 2019. Brookfield acquired 96 communities with approximately 12,000 homes, 200 aged care beds and a pipeline of 5,000 village homesites and 670 aged care beds.
