Ryman Healthcare has delivered another strong bottom line profit despite the challenges posed by the pandemic.
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The large retirement village operator's full-year net profit for the year ended March rose 60 percent to $423.1 million, while revenue rose nearly 54 percent to $872.6m.
The result included a $416.8m gain in the fair value of its portfolio, which was nearly triple that of the gain reported the year earlier.
However, the underlying profit dropped 7 percent to $224.4m due to Covid-19-related challenges.
"We bore the brunt of the Covid-19 lockdowns in the first half. In the final quarter, we achieved record new sales and resales, which was no mean feat after a tough year," chief executive Gordon MacLeod said.
"We have had record cash collections of $1.18 billion during the year to support our largest ever building programme, and we are planning to have 14 villages under construction, seven in Australia and seven in New Zealand later this year."
Ryman met its long-term target of having five villages open in Victoria by the end of 2020, with another six villages in the pipeline in Australia.
The company also bought new village sites at Essendon in Melbourne, and at Karaka and Cambridge in New Zealand. It sold the Coburg site in Melbourne in favour of buying the nearby Essendon.
Ryman's total assets grew by 19.5 percent during the year to $9.17b, with diversified funding of $825m of debt funding.
The company raised $150m in a retail bond issue in New Zealand, $US300m in a USPP private debt placement and $A250m institutional term loan, which were all oversubscribed.
It will pay a final dividend of 13.6 cents, taking the full-year dividend to 22.4 cents per share, which was 50 percent of the underlying profit.
Separately, MacLeod also announced he would be stepping down from his role as chief executive after a total of 15 years with the company, including seven as the chief financial officer.
He will stay on until his replacement joins the company.