Chinese investor visa specialist Delsk buys nursing home
A FIRM that specialises in securing visas for wealthy Chinese clients in exchange for overseas investment has snapped up a Wicklow nursing home project for €9.5m in a deal managed by receiver, Neil Hughes of Baker Tilly.
Founded in Germany, Delsk Group markets itself as a leading “channel between Asia and the world” and has a Dublin office. It has raised €60m from Chinese investors to build nursing homes in Ireland. The investors in turn qualify for Irish visas for themselves and their families.
The structure is authorised under the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service – a Department of Justice unit that operates the Immigrant Investor Programme (IIP). In exchange for a minimum €1m investment over three years, qualifying non-EU investors can secure Irish visas for themselves and their families.
Delsk said yesterday that it has acquired the nursing home development, located at Kil- coole, County Wicklow, through its Salross Ltd subsidiary.
The home will accommodate 89 residents and employ 77 part-time and full-time staff once it is up and running; in addition to the 115 jobs creating during construction.
Delsk said it is investing in excess of €2m of its own capital to complete the acquisition in order to protect earlier investments made by its clients in a joint-venture agreement to develop the project.
That scheme had ended up in receivership after a previous structure also backed by Delsk broke down.
Overall, Delsk said it expects to invest €300m in the Irish economy over a five-year period, which it said will provide visas for international investors and support jobs.
The firms said it is advised in Ireland by McEvoy Corporate Law.
The sale comes less than a week after German-based investor Immac Group entered the Irish nursing home sector for the first time with the acquisition of the Beechfield Care Group of three Dublin care homes in a deal understood to be worth €32m to €33m.
The German company, has €1.3bn in assets and plans further expansion here, through acquisition and new developments. Immac also operates in Austria and the UK as well as its home market.
In Dublin, the Beechfield group includes Beechfield Manor Nursing Home, Glengara Park Nursing Home and Mount Hybla Nursing Home as well as the Beechfield Private Homecare service.