Annual Meeting – Chief Executive Officer’s Address
OCEANIA HEALTHCARE
2 Hargreaves Street, St Mary’s Bay, Auckland 1011
PO Box 9507, Newmarket, Auckland 1149, New Zealand
P +64 9 361 0350 F + 64 9 361 0351
www.oceaniahealthcare.co.nz
ANNUAL MEETING – CEO’S ADDRESS
24 SEPTEMBER 2020
A warm welcome to everyone here today.
Over the last three months of the financial year we navigated a most extraordinary period managing the
challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand. The pandemic presented significant risks for
Oceania Healthcare, both in terms of the wellbeing of our residents and staff as well as financially, with
increased costs in keeping our residents and staff safe and – as Liz said - effectively not being able to
sell a retirement village unit during the final quarter of the financial year. Of course we have continued
to manage the risk of COVID-19 in the period following our balance date with the most recent outbreak
in Auckland once again meaning that our aged care centres and retirement villages were closed to
visitors for two weeks in August.
Financial overview
First, I will take you through the financial results for the year ended 31 May 2020. Despite the challenges
over the final quarter, we have delivered $63.5m of underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation
and amortisation that is in-line with the prior corresponding period, despite the Government lockdown
restricting sales of retirement village units in the final quarter of the financial year and the additional costs
that we have incurred in managing the risk of COVID-19 throughout the business.
Underlying net profit after tax of $42.9m was lower than the prior corresponding period due to higher
interest costs that we incurred to fund our development activity over the year and higher depreciation
charges from completed developments. Over the past 18 months we have completed four new aged
care centres, each of which is classified as property, plant and equipment in our financial statements and
hence attracts a depreciation charge once complete.
Operating cashflow increased to $99.4m as a result of strong sale proceeds received from the sale of
developments that we completed in the previous financial year – predominantly The Sands in Browns
Bay, Auckland, and Meadowbank Stage 4, also in Auckland.
Total assets increased to $1.5 billion which reflects the capital expenditure that we have invested in our
redevelopment programme over the year and completion of new aged care centres. This increase in
asset value is despite changes to CBRE’s valuation assumptions that led to a decrease in the value of
our existing investment property assets. The property portfolio was independently valued by CBRE as
at 30 April 2020, a time that you may recall when the country had only just exited the Level Four
restrictions and New Zealand was still subject to stringent Level Three restrictions. Accordingly, CBRE
reassessed a number of their assumptions to reflect lower property price growth rates – in fact negative
rates in the first year - higher discount rates and increased discounts on unsold stock.
Despite the CBRE assumptions with regards negative property price movement, to date we have not
experienced any decline in prices for the sales that we have achieved since the lockdown restrictions
were lifted in the middle of May.
As at 31 May 2020, Oceania Healthcare had current drawn debt of $326.7m and $17.6m of cash,
representing $110.9m of undrawn net debt headroom. This includes the additional debt facility of $70m
that was put in place in early April for a period of 18 months with our existing bank lenders to provide
even more headroom given the uncertainties in the near term economic outlook at the time.
As we informed shareholders at our interim results announcement in January and full year results
announcement in July, we intended to explore a domestic retail bond issue in 2020 to provide diversity
of funding and tenor and help facilitate Oceania Healthcare’s future growth. We were in the final stages
OCEANIA HEALTHCARE
of preparing for this bond issue in March before COVID-19 caused significant volatility in global financial
markets. We therefore paused that process and are now planning to proceed with the bond issue shortly,
subject to market conditions. This remains a priority for FY2021.
I would now like to turn to our aged care strategy
One of Oceania Healthcare’s strengths is our aged care strategy. As we have said before, our aged care
business is “needs-based”, meaning that residents and their families make a decision to move into an
aged care centre or buy a care suite when the resident “needs” rest home or hospital level care rather
than for lifestyle reasons.
Our aged care strategy is to redevelop our portfolio of well-located sites into new aged care centres that
generate higher, resident-funded, premium revenue through the deferred management fees generated
on occupation right agreements that we sell over care suites. At the time of our IPO, 29% of the portfolio
was classified as premium (including care suites sold under ORA and beds for which we receive a daily
premium accommodation charge). Over the last three years we have increased this to 44% of the
portfolio and, as we build out the remainder of our pipeline, this proportion will increase to 69% with the
number of premium care beds more than doubling from current levels.
Our new aged care centres at Meadowbank, The Sands, The BayView and Awatere are now starting to
mature in their operations and their beds are generating significantly higher returns than the older beds
they replaced. Despite the disruption to these sites as redevelopment took place, our aged care earnings
are accordingly now at a point of “inflection” and will increase going forward as we continue to execute
our strategy.
Overall, aged care occupancy was 93.7% over the year ended 31 May 2020, compared to the prior
corresponding period occupancy of 93.2%.
Now I would like to describe the impact of COVID-19 on the business and our response to it.
As we informed shareholders in mid-March, we were well-prepared to manage the risk of a COVID-19
outbreak at Oceania Healthcare and were already engaged with the Ministry of Health at the time to
ensure that we had their support and access to DHB supplies and resources as required. The Ministry
acknowledged early on the important part that aged residential care plays in the national healthcare
system providing residents with a safe living environment and reducing demand for public hospitals.
We look after over 3,600 residents in our aged care business and each of these residents were of
heightened vulnerability to COVID-19, hence there is no doubt that the pandemic presented a high risk
to their health. As an essential service, we continued to operate during the Government lockdown with
stable occupancy levels and regular cashflow received from both the Government funded daily care fee
as well as additional resident-funded revenue. We also continued to take applications on our care suites
and had residents settle and move into care suites during the lockdown period. None of Oceania
Healthcare’s residents living in its aged care centres or retirement villages have contracted COVID-19 to
date and staff were also well protected throughout the pandemic. A number of actions were implemented
early on to reduce this risk, including restricting visitor access to sites, taking declarations from staff and
monitoring travel, as well as enhancing infection control training and ensuring clear and regular
communication to staff, residents and their families. Additional Government funding was received in late
May which partially offset the increased costs to manage the pandemic risk.
Aged care centres and retirement villages were a wonderful place for elderly people to live during Alert
Levels Three and Four as our residents were very well looked after. Our team came up with many
innovative ways to keep activities going and to provide service and attention to our residents. One
example of this was our team at Meadowbank who coordinated morning exercise classes from the
courtyard with loudhailers and music while our residents participated enthusiastically from each of their
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apartment balconies. These initiatives went a long way towards overcoming social isolation and
loneliness that other elderly people living in the community may have experienced during the lockdown.
In our retirement village business, as Liz mentioned, although we had taken a good level of sales
applications in the weeks leading up to the Government lockdown, restrictions imposed under Alert Level
Four meant that we were unable to show prospective residents through our villages or complete sales,
and residents who had submitted applications before lockdown were unable to sell their own homes,
hence we encountered a delay in being able to settle these transactions.
Once the restrictions on sales eased in Alert Level Two, we recommenced sales activity and have
recorded strong sales levels through June, July and August – 26% higher than the same months last
year. We have seen particularly good levels of sales at both Meadowbank and The Sands over the last
few months. We have now sold 54 independent living apartments and 29 care suites at The Sands (with
a further 12 care suites occupied by residents paying a premium accommodation charge). At
Meadowbank, we have now sold 34 of the 64 independent living apartments in Stage Four and seven of
the 26 independent living apartments in Stage Five, as well as 38 care suites (with a further three care
suites occupied by residents paying a premium accommodation charge).
Many new residents who have submitted ORA applications since lockdown have commented to us about
how the lockdown period gave them an opportunity to reflect on their wellbeing and security, with the
benefits of retirement villages – including stronger communities, security and peace of mind - being more
prevalent over this period.
I will now provide an overview of how we are looking after our staff at Oceania Healthcare
As we have said before, Oceania Healthcare is very much a people business. Our dedicated team have
a huge level of commitment to their roles and a real passion for doing a good job in delivering the highest
level of care to our residents.
There were significant pressures on our staff during the lockdown given the need to isolate residents who
had recently entered the aged care centre or returned from hospital, as well as the screening of anyone
entering the centre and managing visits under Alert Level Two. We worked hard to maintain staffing
levels throughout the alert levels and ensured that staff were well supported in their roles – right down to
the detail of arranging babysitting so our aged care staff could continue to come to work. We also paid
all site based operational staff an additional $2/hour during Alert Level Four in recognition of the work
they were doing under extreme circumstances.
We recognised our registered nurses on International Nurses Day on 12 May 2020 with the launch of “In
Their Shoes”, a celebration of our dedicated and clinically skilled nurses who work at the forefront of New
Zealand’s aged care sector. To mark International Nurses Day, each of our registered nurses were given
a pair of bespoke Allbirds shoes to thank them for all their hard work, not just over the recent COVID-19
lockdown period but every day when they are at work delivering exceptional care to our residents.
We have also offered our employee share scheme to all permanent employees again this year. The
scheme achieved a 70% uptake last year and 77% uptake this year and it’s great for our staff to own a
stake in Oceania Healthcare and further reward them for the vital role they play in Oceania Healthcare’s
success.
We made two new senior appointments during the year. Dr Frances Hughes CNZM joined Oceania
Healthcare as General Manager Nursing and Clinical Strategy in October 2019. Dr Hughes was at the
forefront of Oceania Healthcare’s clinical response during Alert Levels Two, Three and Four, with
excellent leadership and emergency management over staffing protocols, PPE supply and usage, and
heightened infection control. She also chaired the New Zealand Aged Care Association’s Nursing
Leadership Group and was involved in the Director-General’s review of the aged care sector’s
preparedness for a COVID-19 outbreak.
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Brent Pattison was appointed as Chief Financial Officer in January 2020. Since joining Oceania
Healthcare, Brent has been heavily involved in preparing the aged care industry’s funding claim from the
Government for additional costs incurred by the industry as a result of COVID-19.
I’ll now turn to Developments
A key feature of our growth strategy has been the construction of our brownfields development pipeline.
Prior to Alert Level Four, we were on track to complete 265 units and beds in FY2020. In the first half of
FY2020 we completed 90 new care suites at Awatere and 10 villas at Whitianga. We completed 26 new
apartments at Meadowbank and 12 villas at Elderslea in the second half of FY2020 before the lockdown
restrictions were imposed. We slowed our build-rate in mid-March and used contract measures to reduce
capital expenditure on our ten construction projects that were in progress at that time. Our ability to lower
the monthly investment in our build programme and effectively match this with future sales of retirement
village units means that we were able to prudently manage cashflow and risk in these segments of the
business.
After coming out of Alert Level Four at the end of April, we were able to restart most of our construction
projects and the development of 32 villas at Gracelands and six villas and a new community centre at
Woodlands (in Motueka) were both completed prior to 31 May 2020. These two projects brought the
total build rate for FY2020 up to 176 retirement village units and care suites. The restrictions on
construction during the lockdown caused a slight delay with the completion of one of our larger projects,
being the construction of 28 apartments and 61 Care Suites at Green Gables (Nelson), however this
project is now complete as well with our first residents moving in next week.
We have also now recommenced construction of our developments at Lady Allum Village and Eden (in
Auckland), The BayView Stage Two, The Bellevue (in Christchurch) and Awatere Stage Two (in
Hamilton). The construction of 22 apartments and 71 care suites at The Bellevue is expected to be
completed during FY2021 along with Stage Two at The BayView. So, in summary, right now we have
392 independent living units and care suites under construction across five sites in four geographical
regions of New Zealand and 128 of these are expected to be completed before 31 March 2021.
We will also commence earthworks on our Waimarie Street development in October this year. This site
will be one of the highest quality retirement villages in New Zealand offering a full continuum of care with
79 luxurious independent living apartments and 31 care suites.
Our remaining development pipeline of 1,764 units and care suites is 85.7% consented which
demonstrates the excellent capability of our in-house development team in the design and planning for
new projects. We also have a well-proven ability to deliver projects on time and on budget which provides
the business with a very clear growth pathway over coming years.
Conclusion
So, in conclusion, we believe that aged care certainly is a great business to be in during these uncertain
times and our growth strategy, through the redevelopment of our portfolio into superior care suite and
independent living accommodation, has not changed in the light of a rapidly ageing population. We look
forward to continuing to deliver the best quality of care and service to our residents within these
environments over the years ahead.
ENDS
Data sourced from publicly available filings. Our datasets may not be complete. Automated analysis can produce errors. If you believe any data on this page is incorrect, please contact us at hello@nzxplorer.co.nz. For informational purposes only. Not investment advice.
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