David Di Pilla (pictured above), strategist and director of the emerging private aged care provider Aurrum, says HomeCo, the healthcare property investor ASX-listed Home Consortium, now has increased its health-related portfolio to $1.4 billion.
It’s a hot space.
Di Pilla, a former banker with UBS, said HomeCo had continued to target aged care, childcare, hospitals, primary care and government and life sciences assets within Australia’s $250 billion-plus health and wellness sector.
HomeCo informed the ASX on 12 July it had paid $110.3 million in a sale and lease back for eight oncology clinics from GenesisCare and a 5ha block at Camden, 65km south-west of Sydney’s CBD, for $29.2 million where it will develop an integrated health and innovation precinct with Acurio Health Group, with the aim to create a more than $500 million health precinct.
The deals add value to HomeCo’s plans for dual raisings for two healthcare funds: one slated for the public market and one as an unlisted vehicle. The IPO process for ASX-listed healthcare real estate trust – which is looking to raise at least $500 million of equity – is underway and on-track to hit the market in the first half of fiscal 2022.
“We remain on track to establish HealthCo later this year and this update further demonstrates our ability to source high quality assets which are well suited to the model portfolio strategy we announced last month,” Di Pilla said.
“Our balance sheet is well capitalised with minimal debt, providing us with significant capacity to secure additional assets for HealthCo including several which are currently under due diligence.”
Dexus remains the most active investor in the healthcare sector in the past five years, spending $780 million, according to Real Capital Analytics, followed by Canada’s NorthWest Healthcare Properties ($294 million), which is the biggest manager of healthcare real estate in Australia and New Zealand with about $4.5 billion of properties.
