Industry’s top award winners are cream of the crop

Another year and another set of five outstanding winners. The RVA could not be more thrilled at the regional winners of this year’s Manager of the Year.

For the first time, the RVA has a consecutive winner with 2009 SA/NT Gareth Norman taking out the top honours again this year.

The competition for the Manager of the Year was competitive and strong and making a decision was difficult for judges across Australia.

The winners possess passion and enthusiasm, which was noticed immediately, with judging coming down to the wire.

The regional winners are as follows:

South Australia/Northern Territory
Winner:  Gareth Norman
Village/s: Salford Retirement Estate, The Grange Retirement Estate and Unity Retirement Village

“The recognition of the award for the second time is remarkable.  My residents are amazing and to have their nomination and support in what has been a testing year is truly fantastic. I’m privileged to work with a team of like-minded individuals, who are dedicated and make such a difference to our residents’ lives, which also support and recognize the importance of our industry. I encourage managers to enter the Manager of the Year and enjoy the experience as I have done.”

Queensland
Winner: Debbie Searle
Village/s: Aveo Greenleaves

“I was totally shocked when I was announced the QLD Manager of the Year as the other candidate seemed so deserving and worthy of the title. It is an absolute honour to be recognised in this way and a win for the village and the company, not just me. To receive recognition for doing something I love is a wonderful bonus.”

Victoria/Tasmania
Winner: Christine Smitten
Village/s: Lexington Gardens

“Winning the Regional Vic /Tas Manager of the Year was a wonderful feeling of achievement for me; however a manger is only as good as their team.  I am lucky enough to have a fantastic hard working team and they were so happy with my winning the award. As a team we talk and make decisions together that focus on quality outcomes for the village residents in areas such  customer service, improvements to enhance residents life style,  our administrative functions as well as  health & safety. The residents appreciate all the changes that have occurred over the past two years and they were overjoyed when the Residents Advisory Committee announced my winning of the award. It is a great feeling when ones ideas and changes are appreciated.”

NSW/ACT
Winner: Tim Bentley
Village/s: Broadwater Court Retirement Village

“I am so proud to win this Award. I believe the Award is a win for the Operators, Staff and Residents of Living Choice Broadwater Court who have provided tremendous support to me as a Village Manager.

We have a great cohesive team and I am always striving to achieve “better best” in the Village where I get a great sense of satisfaction from improvement. My greatest satisfaction comes from sharing this Manager of the Year Award with the Village.

There is nothing like knowing you are making a difference.”

Western Australia
Winner: Jill Van Blommestein 
Village/s:   Lakeside Bibra Lake

“Winning the Manager of the Year Award has made me feel that my Residents who insisted that I submit an application for the MOTY Award really appreciate my work and goals that I set out for the Village. I can’t thank them enough for their support. I would encourage more Village Managers to apply as it is a truly wonderful feeling that all your time and efforts which can be most trying at times can pay off and be recognised.”

The five managers are now in the running for the National Award to be announced the RVA National Conference AdvantAge10 to be held at the Sofitel Brisbane, Queensland, 26 -28 October 2010.

You can now view the list of regional finalists and photos taken of the five Manager of the Year winners, regional conferences and the gala dinner.

ENDS

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Lend Lease not interested in merger and acquisitions in property market

While Stockland and Aevum are hot topics of discussion in the retirement village industry around merger and acquisitions, Lend Lease have confirmed that they have no such interest in accumulating more assets and see themselves as a developer first and foremost.

Despite recent volatility, Lend Lease has pursued the some of the biggest projects around, but those developments won’t deliver to the group’s bottom line for a few years.

Lend Lease has not offered earnings guidance for this financial year. The talk is all of 2012 and beyond.

Chief executive Steve McCann told The Australian that a “key plank” of the group’s strategy was its integrated model, where it was involved in the construction, development and investment management of projects.

“The big mixed-use urban regeneration projects play best to that model,” he said.

In the last two years, Lend Lease had secured $15-$20 billion worth of projects for its development pipeline, Mr McCann said.

“We are well down the path in terms of getting ourselves to the scale we need to be in the development business in the key markets. Now it’s a matter of focusing on delivery and execution of those developments,” Mr McCann said.

In 2009-10, Lend Lease signed various agreements, including the first stage of the $6bn Barangaroo urban regeneration project in Sydney, the $2.5bn RNA showgrounds development in Brisbane, the $400m first stage of the Alkimos master planned community in WA, and a $400m residential project in Melbourne.

Despite winning a raft of projects, Mr McCann said Lend Lease was still on the lookout. But he was less positive on merger and acquisition opportunities.

When asked at yesterday’s profit result whether Lend Lease would enter the bidding for takeover target and retirement village operator Aevum, he said the group already had 70 retirement villages and 33 care facilities after its privatisation of aged-care operator Primelife. “We don’t need to get drawn into competitive bidding,” he said.

Earlier he told The Australian: “If there is a transaction that makes sense for us and can deliver attractive returns on capital, we will look at it. But if its simply passive assets that’s more for the REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts). The retirement sector is a very attractive sector and ripe for consolidation and that’s been going on for some time.”

(Source: The Australian).

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The RVA welcomes your feedback on this story and encourages you to leave a comment. You can submit your comment at the bottom of this post.

Chinese delegates tour RVA villages across the country

Last week the RVA played host to 10 Chinese delegates who have toured through a number of RVA member high-end, vertical retirement villages across Australia. 

The delegation belongs to the Ageing Industry Association of China and consists of individuals that belong to large organisations that are developing or are about to develop an ageing industry program throughout China.

The tour follows the news that NZ owned company Ryman Healthcare is keen on developing a village in Australia as the RVA reported a fortnight ago. The Chinese delegation further validates that the retirement village industry in Australia is gaining further international exposure and attracting interest from overseas investors.

The delegation arrived in Brisbane and paid a visit to Yeronga Village and Elements Third Age Living. They then visited Waterbrook in Greenwich and Yowie Bay in Sydney followed by Classic Residences in Brighton, Menzies Malvern and Rylands of Hawthorn in Melbourne. 

The visitors were then whisked away to WA to visit Bethanie Village and St Ives in Subiaco before departing for China.

Australians have the opportunity to attend an international tour to Washington next October as part of a delegation on a SAGE tour. Register your interest in attending now.

ENDS

The RVA welcomes your feedback on this story and encourages you to leave a comment. You can submit your comment at the bottom of this post.

 

Australian RV industry attracting international interest despite weakened housing market

Home sales have dropped for two consecutive months, according to figures released by the Housing Industry Association.

Sales of private houses dropped 6.6 per cent in July from a year earlier, and new home sales fell 5.1 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms to a 17-month low in June and a monthly gauge of inflation dropped to 2.8 per cent in July.

The multi-unit sector is considered volatile and large projects that are proposed and marketed can swing housing data significantly.

In June, detached new home sales fell by 10 per cent in Victoria, 5.2 per cent in Western Australia and 5.1 percent in Queensland.

In South Australia they fell by 4.2 per cent and by 2.2 per cent in NSW.

Building approvals have also fallen for the third consecutive month, dropping 3.3 per cent in June. That follows on from a revised 6.4 per cent fall in May.

“Out of all property sectors, changes in the housing market can have repercussions for the retirement village industry. The older demographic will continue to hold onto their assets for as long as possible with the aim of riding out any slump in the market. The longer this continues, the increased possibility that individual unit sales in villages will continue to remain on hold or decrease,” said RVA CEO Andrew Giles.  

However, fears of a house-price collapse are likely to be unfounded, despite the signs that the market has cooled. Yesterday’s decision by the Reserve Bank not to increase interest rates and a return of demand from first home buyers are likely to prevent a price rout.

In addition, the industry is also attracting interest from overseas investors with New Zealand’s foremost aged care and retirement home company, Ryman Healthcare reporting that it is keen on developing a village in Australia as it seeks expansion beyond New Zealand. The company is looking for a site for the establishment of the retirement village, its first in Australia.

Ryman Healthcare is scouring Melbourne and Victoria for a site to build an A$100 million (NZ$124m) retirement village and prove it can successfully enter the Australian market.

Managing director Simon Challies said shareholders at Ryman’s annual meeting, had been told of the retirement village operator’s plans to move across the Tasman.

Ryman had engaged real-estate agents to find a site within the next 12-18 months though it was unlikely that building would start in the next 24 months.

The A$100m estimated figure included the building and site cost for a completed village.

“We’re looking for a site and we’ve got to execute right on the first site and prove to everyone we can do it, and then you might see more,” Mr Challies said.

A site could be 1 hectare in a Melbourne metropolitan location or 4 hectares (or of similar size to Ryman’s Anthony Wilding or Ngaio Marsh villages) in a regional Victorian situation.

ENDS

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Aevum rejects Stockland proposal but is sure to shake up retirement sector

As most of the sector is now aware, Stockland Group launched a failed $266 million takeover bid for Aevum Ltd, late last week.

Stockland will continue its takeover bid for Aevum despite the earlier rejection.

Stockland Corporation Ltd announced on Monday that it would pursue its takeover negotiations with Aevum Ltd despite the latter’s rejection of the cash bid for the blanket acquisition of the retirement group’s shares at 38 percent premium of the stock’s closing price on Friday.

Following careful consideration, group chairman Graham Lenzer said that the company’s board is rejecting Stockland’s unsolicited and opportunistic proposal to buy Aevum shares it has yet to acquire for $1.50 per share, arguing that the offer substantially devalues the target stock.

However, Stockland managing director Matthew Quinn said that the takeover pursuit would stay and his group is still looking forward for further talks in spite of the takeover bid apparently thwarted by Aevum’ board.

Mr Quinn has made it clear that the group wants to become the dominant player in retirement living in Australia.

He said that Stockland does not intend to revise the proposal in order to better lure Aevum’s board into considering the bid as he stressed that the company would keep all its options open in pursuing the deal but discounted the possibility of a hostile takeover, saying that “it’s not the nature of our group to do so.”

At present, the property group maintains a 15.9 percent stake on Aevum with a number of shareholders already convinced in selling their stocks on the proposed price as Mr Quinn added that they would notify the ASX on the revised Stockland’s holding within the next few days.

Stockland said that once the proposal is realised, the group’s retirement villages would jump from its current count of 24 going to around 53 and resulting to about twice its present revenue as it added that funds for the bid would be sourced from cash reserves and undrawn debt facilities.

If the deal is successful, it would increase the proportion of operating profit generated generated by Stockland’s retirement business by 3 per cent to approximately 8 per cent of group earnings before interest and tax.

Aevum has advised shareholders to take no action in relation to the offers.

ENDS

The RVA welcomes your feedback on this story and encourages you to leave a comment. You can submit your comment at the bottom of this post.

RVA membership portfolio expands with NFP numbers increasing

The Retirement Village Association (RVA) has increased its membership portfolio with leading NSW Not for Profit (NFP) operator, Illawarra Retirement Trust (IRT) signing up 32 villages.

IRT is one of Australia’s largest, not-for-profit, community based, retirement living and aged care providers. They provide care and accommodation to 4,500 older Australians and operate throughout Sydney, ACT, Illawarra and the South Coast of NSW.

IRT’s core business is providing accommodation and care within their purpose built communities and villages, however they also provide vital care and support to people in their own homes. For 40 years IRT has built experience and knowledge in highly specialised service divisions, enabling them to cater for the diverse needs of their clients.

62 new NFP villages have signed up as RVA members in NSW/ACT alone in the last 12 months. This takes membership in the region to 35 per cent being NFP.

RVA CEO Andrew Giles says that the RVA is now making inroads with the larger not for profit sector and the company’s membership portfolio now has a diverse range of members and operators.

“This is an outstanding result for the RVA. Many of the NFP’s have been affiliated with aged care associations rather than the RVA in the past, however the RVA has been working hard to create a service model that meets the needs of NFP operators, working closely with aged care associations to ensure high value is provided.  As a membership based organisation, we remain very flexible to accommodate a range of different business models,” he said.

“We are absolutely certain that IRT along with many other NFP’s in the retirement sector will gain many benefits and value from the RVA.” 

ENDS

The RVA welcomes your feedback on this story and encourages you to leave a comment. You can submit your comment at the bottom of this post.