Last Wednesday Macquarie Bank offshoot Retirement Villages Group announced it had raised $850 million in a special village investment fund. This Monday it paid $641 million for the Zig Inge group’s 17 retirement villages and 8 development sites. Zig Inge was 51% owned by the Inge family and 49% owned by another Macquarie offshoot, Macquarie Capital – a short term investment vehicle which looks to make a quick profits on behalf of Macquarie private investors. They succeeded spectacularly with Zig Inge, having bought the 49% 25 months ago for $101 million to then sold it this week for $255 million - a 250% return in 2 years!
FKP, the Brisbane based property group which owns Aveo, also own 26% of Retirement Village Group and has an agreement to manage the villages owned by RVG. Therefore they Aveo may take over the management of the Zig Inge villages as well.