The assets comprise residential aged care homes and development sites worth more than $100m
Thomson Geer has helped Australian aged care provider Estia Health Limited to finalise agreements to acquire residential aged care homes and development sites worth more than $100m from Premier Health Care Group.
Pursuant to the deal, Estia Health agreed to acquire two operating homes in South Australia and two in Queensland from Premier. The four homes will add 409 resident places to Estia Health’s portfolio. According to Estia Health CEO Sean Bilton, the homes are “of the highest quality” and provide the company with the opportunity to apply its proven commissioning skills in finalising its ramp-up.
“Each home has been built or refurbished since 2017 to the high standards that have come to be the mark of a Premier home,” Bilton said. “The homes are aligned to our existing successful operating clusters and have demonstrated strong occupancy and operating performance, despite the huge challenges arising from COVID-19. I look forward to welcoming the residents and employees to Estia Health.”
Estia Health also agreed to acquire two development sites owned by Premier, which would be capable of delivering a further 160-179 resident places in Adelaide. At present, the asset acquisition is still subject to approvals from the Department of Health and Aged Care and is expected to be completed by December 2022.
Partner Andrea Wookey led the Thomson Geer team on all legal aspects of the transaction. The team is composed of lawyers from transactional and regulatory aged care, employment, and property groups across three states, including partners Andrea Wookey, David Beer, Madeline Walsh, Mark Branagan and Chris O’Shea, and special counsel Daniel Beikoff.
Other team members who helped finalise the deal were Kelly Murray, Melanie Barrett, Jared Billson, Stephanie Cogno-Maglieri, Chris Genockey, Ruth Thevathasan, and Maxwell Wilkin.
“We are delighted to have been able to help Estia Health achieve such a significant acquisition of premium assets,” Wookey said. “We have worked intensively with Estia Health’s senior management team, its external financial advisors, and Premier’s lawyers over the last few months in conducting due diligence on these assets and negotiating this deal to ensure that our client’s commercial imperatives were met and within a relatively tight timeframe.”
