Aveo takes over Freedom in $215.5 million retirement village deal
February, 2016 - Australia
The Aveo Group, Australia’s leading owner, operator and manager of retirement communities, has acquired 100% of Freedom Aged Care Pty Ltd for A$215.5 million, comprising cash, scrip and assumption of debt.
Freedom owns and operates more than 1000 units in 15 retirement communities in Queensland, NSW, Victoria and Tasmania, as well as a development pipeline of 533 units.
MinterEllison advised Aveo Group in this strategic acquisition, with a team led by M&A partner Gary Goldman and head of the firm's Retirement Villages practice Robin Lyons.
The acquisition is a key component of Aveo's strategy to increase the levels of care and support services to its residents and is designed to facilitate Aveo's target of growing its return on retirement assets. It is another significant milestone in the implementation of Aveo's pure retirement-play strategy.
It boosts Aveo’s total portfolio to 95 retirement communities with 17,000 homes around the country.
"Our rapidly ageing population is driving demand for high quality care and residential facilities," Mr Goldman. "We have seen strong M&A momentum across the entire retirement and aged care sector and believe we are likely to see increased foreign and domestic investment interest in good quality assets," Mr Goldman said.
MinterEllison is a long-standing adviser to Aveo Group.
"Our work in the acquisition of Freedom showcases MinterEllison's capacity to provide market-leading advice on large-scale, complex transactions across jurisdictions in the heath, aged care and retirement space," Mr Lyons said.
Assisting the core MinterEllison team were finance partner Darren Sumich; tax partner Rhys Guild and special counsel Sally Newman; health & ageing partner Penelope Eden; M&A special counsel Stephen Knight; and property special counsel Danielle Lim, Adrian Rich and Kathleen Ng.
