Aged care and retirement living providers wanting to carry out renovations, refurbishments or other capital works can access a new form of financial support through a capital investor specialising in residential aged care.
Apollo Care, co-founded by John Young, a Principal at KTM Capital, and Stephen Becsi, a former Chief Executive Officer at Bethanie Aged Care, is funded by Australian industry super funds and institutional investors wanting to invest in and acquire residential care operations.
Barry Ashcroft, former CEO of LASA Queensland has also joined the Apollo Care team as Chief Operating Officer, bringing a deep knowledge of the aged care industry to the investment model.
Through its unique model Apollo Care has the capacity to tap hundreds of millions of dollars in investment capital that can be used to assist aged care providers expand assets and services at a time when traditional funding options are tightening.
“By partnering with Apollo Care, aged care operators are able to unlock value in their balance sheet, access funds and broaden the reach of their community impact in other areas consistent with their mission and purpose,” Jeff Gilling, Apollo Care’s Head of Alliance Partnerships, told Inside Ageing.
“Apollo Care’s alternative funding solution has been designed to support smaller providers who need to carry out capital works in order to remain competitive.”
“Large for-profit and not-for-profit residential care operators are spending millions of dollars on renovations, redevelopments and expansion.”
“Today’s aged care residents and their families are more discerning than generations past, and smaller providers are not immune to these changing consumer expectations and need to evolve to remain viable.”
Mr Gilling, who was previously Head of Community Partnerships at Better Caring, said providers have been particularly interested in the joint venture structure that offers bundled funding, bond management and management of risk/compliance on behalf of the provider.
“Apollo Care can co-invest alongside the parent organisation so acts as an equity investor rather than a landlord per traditional sell-and-lease-back methods,” he said.
“From the investors’ perspective, residential aged care is an alternative asset class that offers stable returns in projects that have immediate and transparent social benefits, and the ability to help them diversify their portfolio.“
“For the industry super funds, it’s an alternative asset class that offers stable returns in projects that have immediate and transparent social benefits – what’s now called impact investing.”
“Increasingly investors are looking for opportunities to invest not just for profit, but importantly for community and social benefit as well,” Mr Gilling said.
“We strongly encourage any provider – for profit or not for profit – who is weighing up how to evolve in this current market to get in touch to better understand all their options.”
