Ryman Healthcare's full year result has been hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Photo: 123RF
New Zealand's largest retirement village operator's full year net profit for the year ended in March dropped nearly 19 percent to $264.7 million, reflecting a $173m drop in the value of its property portfolio as a result of Covid-19.
Chair Dr David Kerr said it was a solid result given the disruption caused by Covid-19 and the costs associated with locking down its facilities.
"The most important thing for us was to continue to keep Covid-19 out and to look after our 11,600 residents and 6000 staff. We have been successful so far, but we take nothing for granted," he said.
Ryman's revenue rose nearly 11 percent to more than $422m, with growth in new unit sales at a margin of 27 percent.
This contributed to a near 7 percent increase in its underlying profit which was driven by strong performances in Ryman's Melbourne and Auckland villages.
The company will pay a full year dividend of 24.2 cents a share, which is in line with growth in the underlying profit.
Chief executive Gordon MacLeod said Ryman had been on track to finish the year strongly before the impact of Covid-19 began to be felt.
"We had our strongest February ever with record sales and we had built a lot of momentum for March, which is the end of the selling season for us and traditionally our biggest month.
"The decisions we took to close down our villages to visitors early had an impact on sales activity in March, and we had to shut our construction sites at short notice.''
Ryman did not provide any indication on what its future earnings would look like, but construction of 12 new retirement villages in New Zealand and Australia was under way.
Additionally, Ryman had another 14 projects in various stages of development and just announced the purchase another site on Auckland's North Shore.
However, MacLeod said the company was going to take a conservative approach with these projects and was not planning to commence any new development this year, apart from the 12 under way.