Ryman to weigh ASX listing
Ryman Healthcare will consider a dual listing in Australia as it accelerates plans to create a $1 billion retirement portfolio in Melbourne over the next five years.
The retirement player’s bold move across the Tasman into the Australian market has met with rapid success. Its first facility, the Weary Dunlop Retirement Village in Melbourne’s south-east, opened last August and has become one of its fastest-selling villages.
The final stage of the 480-bed facility goes to market this week.
Already 400 units have been sold.
Managing director Simon Challies is hopeful the facility, which includes an aged-care component, will be fully sold by its first anniversary.
‘‘It was totally unexpected,’’ Challies said. ‘‘It was our first foray into Melbourne and we were unknown.’’
Ryman snapped a second, larger site last year, also in Melbourne’s south-east, a former state school at Brandon Park, for $47.5 million.
Ryman hopes to have its facility under way by early next year. It has set a target to open five villages in Melbourne by 2020.
‘‘We see it as a relatively under- serviced market; there’s a massive opportunity for us,’’ Challies said.
The next three sites could each potentially cost in the $25 million to $40 million range. The end value of the five facilities could top $1 billion. Many Ryman residents become investors. There has been a similar appetite for Ryman stock from its Melbourne residents, adding to pressure for an Australian listing.
‘‘It’s something that we said we’d consider once we got our first village up and running,’’ Challies said.
‘‘I can’t say it’s on the agenda right now.
‘‘It’s something we’ll definitely consider over the next year or two.’’
Ryman has two Melbournebased board members, George Savvides, the managing director of Medibank, and Claire Higgins, who chairs the Country Fire Authority. The board met in Melbourne ahead of its May 22 results, inspecting the two existing properties and looking at prospective sites for the next villages.
The Brandon Park facility, on 5.5 hectares, is yet to be named. It will one day be home to 700 residents, with a developed value nudging $300 million.
Last month Ryman booked a record underlying profit of $136.3 million, courtesy of the demand for places at its new villages in Melbourne and Auckland.
It has 27 villages in its portfolio, providing homes for more than 8000 residents.
Coal miner Bathurst Resources chairman Malcolm Macpherson has retired from the role, handing over to Wellington-based Toko Kapea. Macpherson, who lives in Melbourne, assumed the role of chairman in November 2013 with the intention of retiring once the board was fully restructured. He had been a director since December 2010. In April this year, Bathurst announced the appointments of Richard Tacon as executive director and Peter Westerhuis and Russell Middleton as non-executive directors. The announcement of Macpherson retiring came on the same day that Bathurst told shareholders it would delist from the NZX. Kapea is a Wellington commercial lawyer, consultant and director, specialising in iwi and Maori development matters. He has been a director of Bathurst since May 2013. He is a director of Tuia Group and a partner in Tuia Legal. He has worked at Chapman Tripp, Meridian Energy, and in legal roles at St George Bank NZ and Bank of New Zealand.
Burger sale
The head office of fast food chain Burger King is up for sale on Auckland’s North Shore. Antares Restaurant Group, which owns Burger King, is the lead tenant of a freehold standalone two-level commercial and warehouse building at 6 Antares Place. It will be auctioned by Bayleys on July 1. Built in 2005 and recently refurbished, the Rosedale site is also occupied by engineering consultancy Engeo. The dual tenancy means diverse risk investment, generating $292,896 total net rental per annum. The building is surrounded by national and multinational companies.
Hospitality courted