Ryman announces second $100M village in as many months

Ryman announces second $100M village in as many months

By Jonathan Underhill

June 26 (BusinessDesk) - Ryman Healthcare, which posted a 43 percent jump in full-year profit in May, plans to build a $100 million retirement village in Pukekohe, the second development of that magnitude it has announced in as many months.

The village on a 6.58 hectare site on Valley Road is expected to open next year, the nation's largest rest home operator said in a statement. It will include two and three-bedroom townhouses, apartments and an aged care centre with hospital level care and a dementia unit.

The Christchurch-based company said last month it would spend more than $100 million on a retirement village on a 5.5 hectare site in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, the second such facility in the Victorian state capital.

Ryman owns and operates 27 retirement villages housing 7,500 residents. Like other retirement village developers and operators, Ryman is looking to latch on to an ageing demographic, and has increased its annual building target to 850 beds and units a year in New Zealand by 2017, from a rate of 700 a year.

The company cites a Statistics New Zealand estimate that the number of kiwis aged 75 and above will nearly triple to 731,000 in the next 30 years.

Ryman shares last traded at $8.43. In the past five years they have soared 441 percent, outpacing the NZX 50 Index's 84 percent gain. The stock is rated a 'hold' based on the consensus of six analysts polled by Reuters with a median price target of $8.25.

(BusinessDesk)

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