Simon Owen again wins support from professional investors who want him to take over ING’s village assets

RVA President and CEO of ING Community Living Fund, Simon Owen, has been given a glowing endorsement by the professional investment community which is pressuring ING to ‘internalise’ the management of the fund. This in effect says they don’t want ING but they do want Simon Owen to run the investment trust, which now has 1,400 rental units nationally catering to pensioners. This is the first rental model to now be financially successful in the Australian market. Owen was recruited in 2009 when the fund had debts of $746M and 74% gearing. That is now down to 40%, average occupancies are now up to around 85% and Owen is looking for acquisitions. Trust investors are pressuring ING to forgo $10M in fees and to hand over the keys to the Trust. This is looking likely. Owen previously steered the Hibernian Society from a holding of 3 villages to 21 villages, a name change to Aevum and then a successful listing on the stock exchange. Eighteen months after he moved on from Aevum Stockland bought it as a key asset in its portfolio, delivering immediate positive result so its bottom line.