Business

Retirement village operator could have eye on listing

07:00 am on 6 September 2011

The country's third biggest retirement village operator, Summerset Group, has taken another step to a possible listing on the stock exchange, appointing Rob Campbell and James Ogden to its board.

Summerset is 98%-owned by Australian-based Quadrant Private Equity, which is expected to sell at least part of its stake in an initial public offering in the next couple of months.

Another retirement village operator, Vision Senior Living, is also rumoured to be listing soon.

Mr Campbell will become chairman of Summerset, which has 12 retirement villages. He says the company plans to expand, and it has to sort out its capital needs to do that.

It's completing some new banking arrangements, he says, "and obviously as part of that we're considering what the capital structure should be - and listing is one of the options open to us".

Mr Campbell already chairs listed firms Guinness Peat Group and Turners and Growers, and is also on the boards of ACC and Ports of Auckland.