Known as Sunshine Australia, the new joint venture between Mr Moran’s Provectus Care group and one of China’s largest developers Greenland HK will build its first aged care facility in Wuxi in eastern China, according to The Financial Review.

“Their parent, Greenland Group, makes Lendlease look small,” Mr Moran points out.

Another facility is planned for Shanghai, with three more locations earmarked in Kunming.

Mr Moran is a well-known face in Australia’s aged care industry. A member of the Moran care dynasty, he set up Provectus in 2001 which now has four luxury facilities in Sydney, Melbourne and the Gold Coast.

Just imagine his latest project – it is a plan to turn the historic Darling House in Sydney’s Dawes Point into an exclusive 14-room boutique-style aged care facility as we reported here.

And Mr Moran is no stranger to China either. He speaks fluent Mandarin for instance. In the last four years, Provectus have partnered with three Chinese firms to build facilities there, including a recently opened 170-bed aged care facility in Wuxi, near Shanghai, with one of China’s richest men Peixiang Feng, chairman of Sichuan Ying Xiang Group.

The Group also has a JV with the Shuntiantong Group in Beijing and runs Tiantong Hall, a 200-bed aged care facility.

Combined with its Chinese partnerships, Provectus now has $350M in assets, over $100M in revenue and 450 staff.

Mr Moran told the Fin Review that the Sunshine Australia deal – in which Greenland HK ­will hold a 51% stake ­– took over a year to negotiate.

“To do business in China you have do it with partners as an Australian,” he said.

Greenland HK is owned by the Shanghai-listed $17.68B Greenland Holdings. In June, they signed an agreement with the Yunnan provincial government to build a $5.6B medical and aged care complex in its capital Kunming – a project that Provectus has also been working on.

The deal reflects China’s growing appetite for Australia’s aged care expertise. Traditionally the Chinese have cared for their elderly parents at home, but according to Mr Moran, who wrote his PhD on the looming aged care crisis in China 20 years ago, that has now shifted.

“You can now satisfy these traditional Chinese doctrines of filial piety by looking after parents outside the home in a residential setting,” he says.

The Chinese love of brands even carries through to residential care, with many young Chinese also keen to say their parents are in a top facility.