WELLINGTON: Ryman Healthcare [NZX: RYM], New Zealand’s largest retirement village operator, posted a 23% gain in first-half profit as revenue increased from a bigger asset base and it lifted the value of properties.
Profit advanced to $132.6 million, or 26.5c a share, in the six months ended September 30, from $107.9 million, or 21.6c, a year earlier, the Christchurch-based company said in a statement. Revenue rose 16% to $126.8 million. A value uplift in its properties added $65.2 million to profit, compared with $39.8 million a year earlier.
Underlying earnings, which are used to determine dividend payments and don’t include tax or unrealised gains in property values, rose 6% to $70.3 million, and the company said it is on track to achieve 15% growth in underlying profit to about $157 million. It will pay a first-half dividend of 7.3c a share on Dec. 11, up from a payment of 6.3c last year.
Ryman has been developing new villages as it seeks to benefit from an ageing demographic. Some 160 units were completed in the first half and it expects to build 450 units and 330 residential care beds in the second half, keeping it on track to complete a record 950 units for the year, up from 875 last year. Construction is well advanced on four new large-scale villages, with another four awaiting consent and planning for a further four underway.
“We’ve got more building activity going on than ever before, which gives us great confidence about the second half,” said chairman David Kerr. Kerr said Ryman has signed a contract to buy a third site in Melbourne, Australia, and it is on target to have five villages in the city by 2020. Ryman’s retirement village units increased 11% to 4,958 from the year earlier, and its residential care bed numbers rose 4.1% to 2,807. Shares in the company last traded at $7.46 and have slipped 12% so far this year.
