Ryman Healthcare, New Zealand’s largest retirement living provider, will join the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on Wednesday, 1 October, as part of a dual listing to broaden its investor base.
The $NZ2.4 billion company has been listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX) since 1999, and in a statement last Thursday said the ASX listing would give it greater access to Australian and international investors.
“Ryman pioneered the continuum of care model in New Zealand and successfully expanded into Australia in 2014, where it now has nine operational villages,” the company said.
Chief Executive Officer Naomi James – the Australian executive recruited last year to lead the company’s turnaround – said Australia was now a key growth market for the group. Ryman has invested $2 billion in Victoria over the past 14 years, where it owns nine villages with more than 2,200 residents and 1,500 staff.
The Weekly SOURCE reported in May that Ryman had sold land for 43 apartments adjacent to its Dame Nellie Melba Retirement Village in Wheelers Hill, as well as a site in Coburg, 8km north of Melbourne’s CBD.
Speaking to the Australian Financial Review, Naomi said Ryman’s positioning was unique:
“Ryman is a property and healthcare business, so it’s uniquely positioned between these two big macro trends of a housing shortage and our rapidly growing ageing population.
“It has a unique model, which we call the continuum of care. What it does is provide the ability for people to live independently, get care and support in their home, right through to hospital and end-of-life care.
“What’s playing out now is the shift in that ageing population into an age where their care needs start to emerge. It’s 80 years this month since World War II ended, so from here on, the post-war generation moves into their 80s in large numbers – and that’s typically where healthcare and assisted living needs really start to accelerate.”
