One of the four retirement resorts The GemLife Gold Coast came onstream last year
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Thakral Corp has confirmed that its joint venture for retirement resorts located in Australia, GemLife, is engaged in “advanced talks” to merge with a separate venture run through its regional partner that is that of the Puljich family.
Additionally, GemLife is seeking “interest from potential investors” to acquire “strategic stakes” in excess of 1 billion dollars within the combined entity. This is, as per The Australian Financial Review, can “fetch an estimated multi-billion dollar valuation”.
“I can confirm that Living Gems and GemLife are jointly conducting a review of the strategic direction of both companies for the purpose of combining and adding a significant strategic investor willing to participate in the development story of the company that will become the largest pure play land lease company under the GemLife brand name,” Living Gems CEO Adrian Puljich was quoted as declaring in the Australian online publication The Weekly Source.
A May 3, clarifying announcement made via SGX, Thakral “would like to clarify that the worth of these stakes” is not yet completed.
The possibility of selling that “$1b-plus stake” in the AFR report is “in the opinion of the board only an indication,” adds Thakral.
GemLife, a joint venture GemLife is owned equally by Thakral as well as members of the Puljich family. It was established in the year 2016 it is focused on the development and management of what are known as lifestyle resorts for the over-50s in Australia.
The Puljich family’s resort venture is known as Living Gems. It was founded in 1982. Following the completion of the merger, Living Gems will be integrated under GemLife. GemLife brand.
The amalgamated GemLife unit will be promoted as a portfolio comprising more than 11,000 leases on land properties spread across 43 locations in Australia. Highbury Partnership has been hired to help attract potential investors.
In contrast, Lifestyle Communities, a listed Australian entity operating in the same area has 24 communities that are in various stages of management and development, and plans to purchase at least two new sites every year.
Its properties are lease to more than four hundred homeowners. In May, Lifestyle Communities has a market value of A$1.55 billion.
In its May 3rd, Thakral notes that the possible combination between GemLife with Living Gems was already flagged on April 22. The merger is still at “advanced talks”.
Additionally, Thakral is still “evaluating the options it can use to maximize the returns on the investment it made in GemLife” in addition to “no definitive decision has been taken on what it will do its stake” with Thakral Capital, its subsidiary that holds its GemLife investment.
For FY2021 that ended in Dec 2021 Thakral recorded $17.3 million as its share of profits from GemLife which was up from $6.4 million in FY2020.
In addition to its stake as a shareholder in GemLife, Thakral Corp owns several offices and hotels in Japan in addition to distribution businesses that operates in China as well as Hong Kong.
Thakral shares were last traded at 61 cents. This is up 17.31% year to date.