Queensland-based retirement-living operator Aura Australia Holdings is looking for a capital partner to almost triple its portfolio to more than 2,000 apartments.
Co-founders Tim Russell and Mark Taylor have commissioned JLL Equity Advisory to help find an investor with “a long-time horizon” to co-invest and accelerate Aura’s growth.
Russell said: “We are seeking a strategic partner to take a majority position in Aura Australia Holdings, the existing operating company, which Mark and I currently own 50-50.”
The exact size of the stake has yet to be determined. However, Russell said: “Mark and I are highly motivated to stay in the business to drive future value creation, and will retain a minority stake in Aura.”
He added that “future value creation” refers to the maturing of deferred-management-fee (DMF) cash flows in the six existing villages, and the creation of new villages and DMF cash flows via building out the company’s identified development pipeline.
“Our vision is to grow the business from its current size of 892 independent living units to more than 2,000 units over the next five years plus,” he said.
Since 2018, Singapore-based SC Capital had played an important role in providing funding to allow Aura to develop new villages and to grow its portfolio, said Russell, who together with Taylor, ran RetireAustralia, Australia’s largest privately-owned retirement village operator for many years before establishing Aura.
He added that while SC Capital does not own a stake in Aura, it provides development funding to special-purpose vehicles that own the village sites.
JLL’s head of equity advisory for Australia, Luke Prokuda, said: “There is significant potential to grow the scale of the Aura platform, given Australia’s retirement-living sector is underpinned by compelling demographic tailwinds, low penetration rates, a wealthy target demographic and strong risk-adjusted returns relative to traditional real estate sectors.”
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