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 鈥渁 long-time horizon鈥� to co-invest and accelerate Aura鈥檚 growth.
Russell said: 鈥淲e 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.鈥�
The exact size of the stake has yet to be determined. However, Russell said: 鈥淢ark and I are highly motivated to stay in the business to drive future value creation, and will retain a minority stake in Aura.鈥�
He added that 鈥渇uture value creation鈥� 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鈥檚 identified development pipeline.
鈥淥ur 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,鈥� 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鈥檚 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鈥檚 head of equity advisory for Australia, Luke Prokuda, said: 鈥淭here is significant potential to grow the scale of the Aura platform, given Australia鈥檚 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.鈥�
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