This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
ING Real Estate Community Living Fund, which invests in retirement villages and student housing has posted a net profit under AIFRS of $40.3 million for the year ended June 30, 2006.
The fund’s distributable income, which excludes the impact of AIFRS, was $16.2 million compared with $4.4 million for the previous year.
ILF’s chief executive Ian Muir the past 12 months has been a year of diversification, performance and growth for ILF.
“We have been very successful in implementing our strategy for the Fund which we announced to the market in July 2005,” he added.
During the year, ILF has been diversified from a small fund focused on retirement villages to a broad based community living fund invested in both seniors and student housing in Australia, New Zealand and the United States.
As at August 2006, ILF had 35 completed retirement villages in Australia, eight manager units, 12 development sites around Australia, 21 seniors communities in the United States, 22 student apartment complexes in the United States and three student hostels in New Zealand.
In Australia ILF has three operators including Village Life, SunnyCove and Country Club Villages. In the United States, there are three US student operator/managers and Horizon Bay Chartwell, which operates the 21 US seniors communities. In New Zealand, Campus Living operates three hostels.
The fund has increased total assets from $121 million to $885 million over the 12 month period.
As at June 2006, net tangible assets per unit increased by 20 cents or 21.5% to $1.13.
Looking ahead, Muir said asset ownership is very fragmented for seniors and student housing in the three countries which ILF is currently invested in.
“Our strategy is to continue to use our joint venture partnerships to facilitate strategic acquisitions that add value for the fund. These partnerships will also help ILF achieve economies of scale and superior returns in respect to the existing assets.
“Management’s focus is to continue to improve the fund’s earnings and deliver sustainable distribution growth of 5%p/a over the medium to long term,” he concluded.
The fund announced DPU of 9.78 cents in FY2006, outperforming 2005 IPO forecast of 8.5 cents.
By Kathryn O’Meara
