The continuum of care operator, based in Christchurch, New Zealand, has gone into a two-day trading halt on the New Zealand stock exchange. 

Chief Executive Officer Naomi James, who was recruited last November to try and fix the troubled operator, said Ryman’s debt of NZ$2.6 billion was “uncomfortably high” in the current market conditions, and the company needed a more robust balance sheet so it could trade through whatever conditions the market threw at it. 

The NZ$1 billion capital raise will dilute its existing shareholders as the new shares it plans to issue will be at a discount of 29.2% to Ryman’s closing price of NZ$4.31 on the NZX on Friday. 

The company has gone into a two-day trading halt on the NZ sharemarket while it completes the first portion of the capital raising. The capital raise will begin with Ryman seeking NZ$313 million through investment services providers Jarden Securities, Craigs Investment Partners, and Forsyth Barr. 

After two days, when that is completed, the trading halt will lift for the remaining NZ$688 million part of the capital raise to start. 

Founded in New Zealand in 1984, the company opened its first Australian village, the Weary Dunlop Retirement Village in Wheelers Hill, Melbourne, in August 2014. Now Ryman is operating a further nine villages in Melbourne which are home to more than 2,000 residents.  

Browse Ryman Healthcare's retirement villages on the #1 listings website villages.com.au