Good morning, everybody, and welcome to Ryman Healthcare's 2025 annual shareholder meeting. My name is Dean Hamilton, and as Chair of the Board, it is my pleasure to welcome you all, whether you're joining us here in person or online. Before we begin, a few practical matters. Should the fire alarm sound at any point, please use your nearest fire exit. The meeting point is the grass area next to the building, and please follow the instructions of the piano staff at all times. Can I please ask that you all take a moment to ensure your cell phones are switched to silent mode? As a reminder, today's meeting is a hybrid meeting. For those online, if you have any issues, please refer to the virtual portal guide or phone the helpline on 0800 200 220.
If you're online and have questions, you can send them through via the online portal by clicking the link shown here on the screen. I would encourage you to do so as early as possible, as this will allow us to answer these questions at the appropriate time during the meeting. Voting on the resolutions today will be conducted by way of a poll. Both resolutions in today's meeting are ordinary resolutions, and to be passed require approval of 50% of the votes cast on each resolution. For shareholders joining us in person today, you would have had validated or been given your shareholder voting card. If you are a shareholder and did not register on arrival and wish to vote, please make your way to the registration desk outside the room and ask staff from MUFG Corporate Markets to assist you.
Shareholders joining online will be able to cast a vote using the electronic voting card received when online registration is validated. To vote, you'll need to click on the "Get a Voting Card" button within the online platform meeting, which is also shown here on the screen. Voting will remain open until five minutes after the conclusion of the meeting. I declare that we have a quorum of shareholders, and the meeting is now open. Today, I'll begin by providing an overview of the progress we are making in strengthening the foundations of Ryman, which sets us up for improved performance over the coming years. I'll then hand over to our Chief Executive, Naomi James, who will walk you through the 2025 financial year and the plans we have for improving shareholder value.
We'll then address the resolutions of the meeting before we have time for questions and answers at the end. Following the conclusion of the meeting, we invite you to join the Ryman board and the executive team for some light refreshments. Joining me today are my fellow directors: Paula Jeffs, James Miller, Kate Munnings, David Pitman, Anthony Leighs, and Scott Pritchard. As part of our board renewal, we were pleased to appoint Scott Pritchard as an independent director last November. Scott brings deep expertise in property development, corporate leadership, including his current role as Chief Executive Officer of Precinct Properties. Since joining the board, Scott has played an active role in guiding our strategic initiatives and, in particular, how we might go about development in the future. His extensive experience and insights have already added value. We also acknowledge recent board transitions.
As we discussed at last year's meeting, Claire Higgins stepped down from the board on December 31, 2024, and Anthony Leighs advised us back in February of his intention to retire at the completion of today's meeting. Anthony joined the Ryman board in 2018. Anthony has brought deep construction experience and an owner's mindset, and they have been a real value around the table. On behalf of the board, I would like to thank Claire and Anthony for their dedication and significant contribution to Ryman. Also joining me on stage is our CEO, Naomi James. Many of our executive team are also attending and sitting in the front row. I would encourage you, at the conclusion of the meeting, to introduce yourself over refreshments. Representatives from our new auditor, PwC, and our share registrar, MUFG, also join us today.
Firstly, let me acknowledge and apologize on behalf of Ryman for the loss of value that shareholders have experienced over the last four years. As a result of a combination of internal and external factors, the fall in the share price has been substantial, down over 80% since the peak in 2021. This is totally unacceptable. Your board are very focused on rebuilding this value. Recognizing the need to build a more resilient, disciplined, and commercial business, the board is focused on resetting our foundations to materially improve our performance, but at the same time, ensuring we never lose sight of our core purpose that is providing exceptional care to our residents. I do believe we have taken decisive steps. This includes a comprehensive series of changes across governance, across management, remuneration, our financial reporting, the transparency of our financial accounts, our capital structure, and our near-term priorities.
I do believe we have turned the corner. Since June 2023, we've undertaken a significant board refresh with five new directors appointed. This has revitalized and added new skill sets to the board. We will look to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Anthony Leighs over the next 12 months, and then we will run with a smaller board of seven for the foreseeable future. I've been really pleased with how the new board has leant into and worked constructively to make what have been a number of hard decisions. All directors are now independent. As announced last year, the board has been working to align executive remuneration with long-term value creation through a refreshed incentive scheme, which replaced the prior medium and long-term schemes that were tied to growth and underlying profit, a problematic metric which we've moved away from.
The new long-term scheme is now directly linked to total shareholder returns. In addition, we've introduced minimum shareholding requirements for both executives and directors to further align our interests with shareholders. In November last year, we welcomed Naomi James as our new CEO. Naomi brings extensive Trans-Tasman commercial experience, having held several senior leadership roles, including most recently as Chief Executive of NZX Listed Channel Infrastructure. The board was delighted to attract someone of Naomi's caliber to the business. The executive team has been reshaped and refocused, reducing from nine executives to seven with clear accountability and functional responsibilities. I would also like to warmly welcome Matthew Prior as CFO from today. Matt brings extensive experience in consumer and patient-facing healthcare and has a proven track record of delivering for shareholders by driving operational excellence.
I would like to take the opportunity to thank Rob Woodgate for his hard work and contribution to the first stage of our business transformation over the last two years. We have completed the extensive board-led review of our financial reporting over two reporting periods. This has been a larger exercise than initially expected. We have focused on removing director judgments from asset valuations, taking a more conservative stance on revenue recognition and cost capitalization, removing internally generated goodwill, and writing down the carrying value of Ryman developed software. This has unfortunately led to a substantial reduction in shareholders' equity and NTA per share. The changes have been significant and, in some cases, very complex.
While it has been challenging to work through and challenging for readers of the accounts given the scale of adjustments, we believe the improved transparency and greater comparability will put us in a much stronger position going forward. This review of our financial reporting is now complete. We are resetting our cost base. The company's overheads had grown significantly over recent years, which meant we became a high-cost developer and a high-cost operator. Neither of these are sustainable in a competitive market. Naomi will speak more to the improvements we are making later on. In the past year, we've also taken decisive action to reset our balance sheet to strengthen our financial position, simplify our debt structure by removing the institutional term loan, and ensure we have runway and control of our destiny to rebuild value. A key milestone was our NZD $1 billion equity raise earlier in the year.
Thank you to those shareholders who supported us. This has significantly enhanced our financial flexibility by reducing our gearing ratio to 28% and delivering annualized interest savings of between NZD 50 million-NZD 55 million per annum. The capital raise also enabled us to secure an 18-month waiver of our interest covenant, providing us the time to continue our operational reset and the opportunity to renegotiate our funding structure this financial year from a much, much stronger position. As previously signaled, we remain committed to reviewing our capital management and dividend policies by the end of this financial year. In addition, we have advanced our application for a foreign exempt listing on the ASX and expect the listing to be live by the end of September. This will gradually expand our access to new investors, which will be to the long-term benefit of all shareholders.
You will see on this slide the substantial progress we have made in the last year and the scale of our investment. FY 2025 was a record build year in Ryman's history, with 950 retirement village units and aged care beds delivered across nine villages. Included within this build was the opening of four main buildings shown here at Miriam Corban, at Keith Park, James Wattie in Victoria, and Bert Newton villages. These main buildings serve as welcoming homes for our care and serviced apartment residents while offering dining facilities, amenities, and services enjoyed by all our village residents and are an integral part of the communities at Ryman. The business has never delivered four main buildings in one year. These have been multi-year commitments that will take time to build occupancy as we fill the significant capacity of aged care beds and serviced apartments for the first time.
Hubert Opperman village in Mulgrave, Victoria also opened its first independent townhouses this year, bringing the total number of operating villages at Ryman to 49. Nine of these are in Victoria and 40 are here in New Zealand. I want to take the opportunity to thank our construction teams who have done a great job in challenging stop-start circumstances to get these buildings completed and to a very high standard. Post balance date, we proudly opened the main building at our Kevin Hickman village on the 1st of July, which is a significant milestone for this village which opened to independent residents in 2020. We now have around 200 residents who call this lovely village home and get to enjoy these fantastic amenities, which include a heated pool, spa, cafe, library, gym, bowling green, cinema, and beauty salon that the board had the pleasure of walking through on Monday.
Earlier in July, we held our village open days where we welcomed over 250 people through the doors at Kevin Hickman, and we've seen strong inquiries on the back of this. Kevin Hickman is a truly stunning village, and I would encourage anyone in Christchurch to visit it and see it for yourself. It is certainly a special place for mom or dad. Please take a moment to enjoy the short video with a glimpse into village life at Kevin Hickman.
It's time to embrace your freedom that comes with a thriving lifestyle at Kevin Hickman Retirement Village in Riccarton Park. Just minutes from Christchurch City, one of our newest villages has taken easy living to the next level with space, comfort, and design. Entertain with friends and family and stamp your personality on Ryman's stylish apartments or enjoy the comfort of our townhouses. Admire breathtaking views across to the Port Hills. Take in the horse racing from your balcony overlooking the Riccarton Park racecourse. Reconnect with nature in a secure village that bridges the semi-rural calm with inner-city living. Shops, markets, and cafes are handy, and you have easy access out of the city to explore the great outdoors. Discover Kevin Hickman Retirement Village and see where the journey takes you.
I would also like to take the opportunity to acknowledge the passing, sadly, this year of one of our two co-founders, Kevin Hickman. Kevin, along with John Ryder, founded Ryman 40 years ago and pioneered integrated retirement living and aged care as we know it today. It literally didn't exist before Kevin and John. Along with many others, I was fortunate to attend the service for Kevin at the Christchurch Town Hall. It was humbling to hear of his contribution not only to this sector but to athletics and to his other real passion, horse racing. A great pioneer with an enormous legacy, certainly a life well lived. We remain committed to our sustainability journey and have made good progress in a number of areas over the past year.
We've achieved a 41% reduction in our Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions since our FY 2021 baseline, which is a significant step towards our 2030 target. The Ryman Healthcare Solar Farm in Northland is nearing completion and will soon be providing renewable energy to our villages through the innovative purchase agreement we've secured with Harbour Infrastructure and Mercury. In Australia, we've secured a green power renewable energy agreement with Origin Energy. On the social front, we are proud to have published our first modern slavery statement and our first reconciliation action plan in Australia. We're also pleased to report that we have no gender pay gap across all of our team members in both Australia and New Zealand. As we look to the future, we must not lose sight of our purpose, which is to provide freedom, connection, and wellbeing for people as we grow older.
Our residents are at the heart of everything we do, and we remain committed to our purpose-led model of care and delivering exceptional residential services. These are the same principles upon which the business was founded by Kevin and John 40 years ago, a milestone that we celebrated during the last financial year. That said, we recognize the need to deliver sustainable business performance and ensure that our business is fit for the next 40 years in delivering industry-leading retirement living and care for New Zealanders and Australians. We need to find the right balance between care and commerciality. Ryman has undertaken a significant transformation over the past year. We've taken decisive action and laid the foundations for a stronger, more focused, and more resilient business. To our shareholders, the share price performance over the last four years is clearly unacceptable.
I thank you for your continued patience and support as we work towards rebuilding value. To our team members, thank you for another year of dedicating to delivering great care for our residents. With that, I'll now hand over to our Chief Executive, Naomi James.
Thank you, Dean, and thank you to everyone here for joining us today and to those who have joined us online. As Dean mentioned, I started in this role in November, and it is great to be with you today for my first annual shareholders' meeting. Since joining, I have met so many of our committed and caring staff, and it's this commitment and care that has seen Ryman once again this year selected by the public as New Zealand's most trusted brand in aged care and retirement villages. This marks the 11th time Ryman has received this industry award from Reader's Digest, which is a real endorsement to the enduring commitment we have to residents, their families, and the vibrant communities our teams help create across each of our villages.
It's been a real privilege for me to have already visited more than half of our 49 villages and to meet many of our residents in New Zealand and Australia and hear firsthand about their experiences. We know our residents are a key part of what makes each of our villages special and deeply value the contribution that our 15,000 residents make in our communities. We are proud to offer them a choice in retirement living and the peace of mind in knowing that they have access to industry-leading care as their needs change. Moving to our FY 2025 results, as Dean noted earlier, we have now completed a comprehensive financial reporting review. This significant reset has led to changes to key accounting policies, as well as improving transparency and comparability of Ryman's reporting.
However, these changes have made this year's set of accounts complex, with a number of restatements, one-offs, and non-cash write-downs resulting in a reported net loss after tax of NZD 436.8 million. In FY 2025, we saw improvement in the financial performance of our villages and reductions in our non-village costs. In FY 2026, we expect to build on this momentum through incremental revenue growth across DMF and weekly fees, the ongoing impact of cost reductions already achieved, and further savings driven by a sharper focus on procurement and operational efficiency. Looking at unit sales, Ryman achieved 1,523 sales of occupation rights in FY 2025, broadly flat on the prior year. As outlined at the time of the equity raise, we saw a softer period for contracting in the second half of FY 2025, which will result in a lower level of unit sales in FY 2026.
We have been working hard to rebuild contracting momentum, which I will talk to on the next slide. Reflecting our strong brand, occupancy remained above 90% in Ryman's mature villages across both aged care and retirement living. Lifting occupancy in our developing villages is a key focus area for the business as we look to sell down new stock and fill capacity in our recently opened care centers. Free cash flow of -NZD 94 million was in line with guidance provided at the equity raise. While still negative, this improved by almost NZD 100 million year on year, and we are targeting further improvement in FY 2026. Sales contracts, which we also refer to as sales applications, are a lead indicator in the business, with settlements on average lagging contracts by around six months.
Since the equity raise, when we reported a soft period of contracting in the third quarter of FY 2025, contracting momentum has steadily improved, with gross contracts in the first quarter of this year now at 91% of the level seen in the last two comparative periods. This improvement reflects a sustained emphasis on sales effectiveness across a range of initiatives, including targeted promotions and sales incentives, price optimization, and continued investment in frontline sales team development. Importantly, we are rebuilding contracting momentum at a significantly higher level of deferred management fees, or DMF, compared to the past, with the average DMF on new resident contracts signed since 1 October last year almost 40% higher than in the past.
As part of our efforts to provide more visibility to investors, we released our first quarterly update a few weeks ago, announcing 337 sales of occupation rights and over 96% occupancy in our mature aged care centers in the first quarter of FY 2026. FY 2026 sales are currently tracking towards the upper end of the previously guided range of 1,100- 1,300. We still expect variability throughout the year given the flow-through impacts of softer contracting in the second half of last year and mixed market conditions. Our operational reset is underpinned by three strategic priorities announced at the time of February's capital raise. The first strategic priority is to release cash from the business, which will allow us to reduce debt and create capacity for future growth.
Our focus is on selling down over NZD 700 million of new sales stock and paid-out resale stock and portfolio optimization, where we will look to divest selected land bank sites, which are collectively valued at NZD 370 million. Our second strategic priority is to make a significant and sustainable improvement in cash performance by NZD 100 million- NZD 150 million. This includes lifting the operating performance of our villages and resetting our non-village overheads. Our third strategic priority is disciplined growth, driven by a clear plan for value-accretive portfolio expansion. Central to this is the portfolio and strategy review we have commenced to identify the best opportunities to optimize and grow the Ryman business. I look forward to sharing more details with you on plans for the future later this financial year. We've made significant inroads on our strategic priorities this year, with this reset commencing well before I started as CEO.
As I talked to earlier, the changes made to our unit pricing framework have driven a 40% higher average DMF on new contracts, and we continue to improve our effectiveness in selling the new offering. We've achieved annualized cost savings of NZD 23 million and are targeting a doubling of this by the end of FY 2026. Following our capital raise, we're achieving annualized interest savings of NZD 50 million-NZD 55 million. Commencement of new developments has been paused as we complete our in-flight projects, sell down existing stock, and undertake our portfolio and strategy review, providing the time to lift the operating performance of our villages and get clarity on the best value-accretive growth opportunities for the business. We will continue to update the market on our progress throughout the year ahead.
As we review Ryman's plans for the future, we are very aware of the sector trends and how Ryman is uniquely positioned to benefit from these. As shown on this chart, the New Zealand government estimates that by 2032, there will be a shortage of over 10,000 aged care beds in New Zealand. As New Zealand's leading provider of retirement living and aged care, and with a growing portfolio in Victoria, Ryman is well positioned for future growth in demand. As aging populations in both countries grow and the gap between aged care bed supply and demand widens, our model will become increasingly valuable to the residents we serve and to our shareholders. By pioneering the continuum of care model in New Zealand and bringing it to Australia, Ryman's portfolio offers more care capacity and capability than any of our retirement competitors.
Ryman villages provide residents with the security of knowing they will be looked after, with access to the levels of care they might need as their needs change. I want to finish by highlighting the investment proposition for Ryman as it stands today. FY 2025 has been a year of significant reset, and while there is still much to be done, I am confident that we start FY 2026 with a strong platform to improve shareholder value. We are the market leader in integrated retirement living and aged care. Our continuum of care model is unmatched in size and flexibility and well positioned to capitalize on growing demand. We have a renewed performance focus with our revenue and cost reset well underway and see significant opportunity to unlock further efficiencies and operating leverage.
Our balance sheet has been reset following our equity raise, providing financial stability that will continue to improve as our business improvements drive cash flow. It's important that we set the business up to be resilient through the cycle and continue to have our shareholders' capital front of mind. Our portfolio and strategy review provides the opportunity to unlock further value and ensure a disciplined approach to future growth. We are attractively positioned to benefit from the recovery in the housing and economic cycle. We have already made significant progress on our plans and have a management team that is committed to delivering on the targets that we promised you at the time of the capital raise. I want to thank you for your continued patience and support as we progress our business transformation.
I look forward to updating you on our plans to further improve and grow our business and our dividend policy review later this financial year. I'll now pass back to the Chair for resolutions and general business.
Thanks, Naomi. Poor Naomi had a cough a couple of weeks ago, and it sounds like it's decided to come back at just the wrong time, but let me pick up. Before we get to general business and your opportunity to ask any questions, we will first move to the formal meeting resolutions, which were outlined in the notice of meeting. Each resolution set out in the notice of meeting is to be considered as an ordinary resolution and, as such, must be approved by a simple majority of the votes cast by shareholders entitled to vote and voting on the resolution. For those of you here today, you'll be voting using your voting card. Please mark your voting intention for each resolution, and the voting cards will be collected at the conclusion of the meeting. If you require assistance with this, please see MUFG outside the room.
For those of you voting online, you will now need to click "Get Voting Card" within the online meeting platform. Please mark your electronic voting card in the way you wish to vote by clicking "For," "Against," or "Abstain." Once you've made your selection, please click "Submit Vote" on the bottom of the card to lodge your vote. A quick reminder, voting will remain open until five minutes after the conclusion of the meeting. Results of the vote will be announced via the New Zealand Stock Exchange. The outcome of proxy votes received prior to the meeting will be displayed for your information after voting on all the resolutions. There will be an opportunity to ask questions on each matter being put to shareholders. For the sake of good order, shareholders' questions raised should relate directly to the matter being considered. There will be time later to ask general questions.
I will take questions from those present in the meeting before moving on to any questions from shareholders online. I ask that in the interest of fairness to all shareholders attending this meeting, anyone wishing to ask questions, if you could be as concise as possible and be considerate of other shareholders wishing to ask questions. Now, turning to resolution one, that the board be authorized to fix the remuneration of PwC as auditor of Ryman Healthcare Limited for the ensuing year. The board unanimously recommends that shareholders vote in favor of resolution one. Are there any questions of the board concerning the resolution from shareholders in the room? Yes.
Good morning, Chair. I've got a cold like you, Naomi, so mine's probably worse. Just one question.
Sorry for you.
If you're just. Is that David King, K-Capital?
Great. Thank you, David.
One question. Clearly, the NTA has been falling precipitously in the last few years. It's currently sitting at NZD 4.18, which, when that was revealed, disappointed the market. The market was expecting something a little bit higher than that. I'd just like to ask the auditor, please, if they could clarify to what extent have they reviewed the valuations of the villages, which are the critical determinant of the NTA of the company, so that shareholders can have some comfort that there will be no further reduction in NTA per share, and that they can have some comfort that ultimately there will be a rebound in shareholder value to reflect the NZD 4.18. Thank you.
Right. Thank you, David. Sam, if you could pick that up.
Thank you, David, for your question. I'll direct your attention to our audit opinion that accompanies the financial statements. There's a key audit matter around valuation of investment property and care homes, and I think that clearly articulates the work that we've performed around the valuations. Thank you.
As you'd be aware, David, the valuations performed both on the retirement village units and the care are independently done on both sides of the Tasman. Those valuations had sufficient inquiry from the board. They present to all the board. The auditor also has the ability and did inquire of the valuers in terms of their assumptions and tested the reasonableness of those things. I think there's been a comprehensive review both at the audit level and at the board level of those valuations. Any other questions on the resolution at hand? Are there any online questions with regard to the auditor?
There are no questions online.
Thank you. Please mark your voting cards now. Moving on to the second resolution. Under NZX Listing Rule 2.7.1, a director appointed by the board must not hold office without reelection past the next annual general meeting following that director's appointment. Scott Pritchard was appointed as a Non-Executive Director by the board with effect from the 1st of November 2024. Scott accordingly retires and offers himself for reelection. Scott is considered by the board to be independent. The board unanimously recommends that shareholders vote in favor of resolution two. I would now like to invite Scott to introduce himself and speak to you regarding his reelection.
Thanks, Dean, and good morning, shareholders, and thank you for allowing me to say a few words. It's a great privilege to offer myself for reelection as an independent director of Ryman. I joined the board in November last year, having observed the challenges that this company was facing, but realizing that this company is a truly iconic company that has led the retirement and aged care sector in New Zealand over the last 40 years. As well as seeking your reelection today as an independent director of Ryman, I'm also the Chief Executive Officer for Precinct Properties and have been for the past 15 years. I also serve on the board of the Property Council of New Zealand. I chair the Auckland Council City Centre Advisory Panel and am a trustee for the Tanya Dalton Foundation.
I've had around 25 years' experience in development and real estate markets and publicly listed companies. Over the past 10 years, I've led around NZD 4 billion of development in my role as CEO for Precinct and have delivered these projects successfully and to the benefit of investors. I plan to use my experience, both personal and professional, to support Ryman, its board of directors, and its management team as it evolves its business operations and cements itself as New Zealand's leading retirement and aged care provider. Ryman Healthcare has and will continue to evolve its business model to generate and regenerate sustainable value while striving to exceed the expectations of a diverse stakeholder group, including you, our shareholders and owners of Ryman. I believe in this company and am enthusiastic about Ryman's future.
I believe my broad real estate experience and track record, along with my deep knowledge of New Zealand markets and our company's strategy and operations, can continue to contribute to Ryman's governance and success. As I said at the outset, it is a privilege to serve as a director of Ryman. I acknowledge the responsibilities that come with this role. Thank you again for this opportunity and for putting your confidence in me.
Are there any questions for Scott or the Board concerning this resolution from shareholders in the room? David.
Look, good to have you on board, Scott. Property development is a challenging area. It's one of the key reasons, in my view, why Ryman Healthcare has had a very disappointing few years. I congratulate you, Chair, on being honest enough to apologize. So well done. I think that's something that not many company chairmen are prepared to do, but the shareholder value has suffered. Scott, I believe that your contribution is crucial. In my view, the developments here in this company, it's exciting to do the development, but at the end of the day, the majority of developments, whether it's retirement villages or office blocks or whatever, the majority tend to, the CapEx blows out, the timeline blows out, and quite often the ultimate return declines.
For example, the high vacancy factor in the new villages. My view is that focusing much, much more closely on whether property development is a good thing for this company is critical. At the moment, the company has, I thought it was NZD 390 million, Naomi, but you said NZD 370 million, but of that order of undeveloped sites. In my view, some of them should be sold quickly. I think the company, with your assistance, Scott, should really look very, very, very closely at the IRR that is required to provide a proper return to shareholder on new development.
When you look at that IRR, I think you've also got to take into account the various holding costs, the management time, which is extensive, and you've got to take into account the risk factor because I think it's fair to say that a lot of Ryman Healthcare's new developments in recent years have not performed according to the original feasibilities. I welcome you on board, Scott. I think your role is very important. I think the board should focus incredibly closely on development. I would like to think that the board would not look at new developments at all for a while. I think you've got to earn the right again to move into growth and redevelopment. I think you've got to stabilize, first and foremost, recover from this very tough few years.
I would also ask, Scott, what sort of IRR do you expect as a property expert on a new project when you factor in everything? The management time, which is extensive. What sort of IRR do you expect, Scott, on new developments?
Thanks for your question, David. Look, it depends on the asset class. That's the sort of short answer. They vary. If you're looking at office right now, you might be looking at north of 12.5% IRR. If you're looking at student accommodation, you're 15%+ . If you're looking at residential and build-to-rent residential, it's often inside 12.5%. It can be as low as 11%. Each of those metrics depends on the cost of capital of the company, and they can vary too. All of the comments that you've said today are all well considered. I hear you. There's a huge amount of consideration going on, certainly over the last six months in terms of how and what we develop in the future and when we develop. I appreciate your feedback.
You've been on the board for a little while, Scott. Have you had a chance to look at why a lot of the developments of Ryman Healthcare have not delivered a proper IRR? What are the lessons learned? There's no problem in things not working. We all have things that don't work. Smart people analyze why things don't work, learn lessons, and make sure they don't repeat the same failure in the future. Appreciate your insights into what's gone wrong on the developments.
Yeah, I mean, I look at it’s probably not for me to reflect too much because I haven’t been here for too long. In terms of what you’re looking for when you undertake a development, you’re looking for demand, you’re looking for highest and best use, you’re looking for a set of specifications and a design that meets the needs of the end user, and making sure that you’re not spending too much money and overspecifying developments or designing villages that are actually too grand. Those are all the things that we’ll be looking at as we consider how we might allocate capital in the future into developments.
Thank you.
Thanks, David. Any questions online?
I had two questions online for Scott Pritchard. The first is from Andrew McKenzie. Are there likely to be any conflicts of interest with Precinct and Ryman, possible outsourcing of its construction going forward?
No, I don't anticipate any conflicts of interest.
Maybe I'd just comment on that. We obviously run a strong conflicts of interest register as a Board. To that extent, if there are any emerging conflicts, those directors will be excluded from discussions and from voting.
Your next question for Scott Pritchard comes from Zhao Yu Chen. How does the experience you mention match the reality and your belief as truly reliable?
In terms of my experience, it's been across development, in office, in industrial, in residential, in hotel, and in retail. It's a wide set of experience. Most recently in residential build-to-sell apartments. Of course, in villages, we're not looking to undertake necessarily a sales program in regards to kind of in the same way that we do for a precinct, for example. All of the experiences I think are particularly valid for Ryman. The reality and the belief and whether I'm reliable, that's going to be a question for you as shareholders in the future. I'm six months in. I'm incredibly excited about the opportunity that's in front of this organization. I acknowledge the challenges that it's had, but I'm encouraged about our future.
Thanks, Scott.
There are no further questions online.
There's another question back in the room. Thank you.
I must say that I do not know anything about the subject, you see. I was a basic maintenance engineer, and I look at your very large blocks that are being built, and I wonder how on earth is Ryman Healthcare going to maintain them? Bear in mind that after 25 years, you've got to really think about a major renovation of the building, and after 50 years, you demolish it. Would we not be better at building small houses which people could move into and then after 50 years sell them off to somebody else? Thank you.
Right. I might pick that up. I think what I'll do is I'll deal with that later in general Q&A. You won't have to ask it again. I'll pick that up. Thank you for that. In terms of specifically on the resolution, are there any questions regarding Scott? I now propose that Scott be reelected a director of the company. Thank you. Please mark your voting cards now. I would now like to give shareholders the opportunity to ask questions, whether related to the presentations, the financial statements, or the management of the company. We will do our best to answer these. Shareholders online can continue to provide questions through the portal, and we will also address questions from the room.
When I call for questions, can shareholders present in the room who would like to ask a question please make your way to the microphone stand in your closest aisle so that people in the room, as well as online, can clearly hear you. Please introduce yourself and identify yourself as a shareholder before asking your question. If you can't make it to a microphone, no problem. Please raise your hand and one will be brought to you. I will firstly respond to some questions that have been pre-submitted online in the last week and then take questions from those present in the room before moving on to any questions from shareholders online. The first question was submitted by Darren Rickard. His question is, is your new way of doing things starting to show results yet?
As I said in my introductory speech, I do believe we are turning the corner. We've been driving a business improvement program over the last 12 months, and Naomi has also picked it up since she has joined and accelerated that. There is some way to go, no doubt. I do believe our FY 2025 results showed that we are turning the corner. We did reduce our cost base by some NZD 23 million. As was said publicly, we're targeting doubling of that this financial year. On the revenue side, you saw improvement in our bed revenue numbers, both in aged care and retirement living. We've reset our deferred management fee on new resident contracts. As Naomi discussed, new contracts are up significantly on old contracts. We've strengthened our balance sheet by raising NZD 1 billion and reducing our gearing to 28%.
Yes, I think we are seeing signs, and we'd like to continue to show progress at the half year and the full year. The second question was provided by Yan Pu. What specific performance metrics are management being held accountable for this year to restore investor confidence and improve balance sheet health? As we disclosed in the annual report, management have two sets of incentives. One is a short-term incentive, which we measure annually, and one is a long-term incentive measured over three years. The financial targets in the first 12 months were, as disclosed, which is an 80% weighting of their short-term incentive as financially driven. They cover cash flow from existing operations, cash flow from development, operating cost reductions, sales, and our payout balance. It's all very financially driven. Those are the key metrics that were put there.
The non-financial measures, which is 20% of their short-term incentive, relate to safety, to our resident net promoter score, and to a high-performance development culture progress towards those. Those are the key measures that we have for our executives. In terms of the long-term incentives, that will be measured by total shareholder returns over the next three years. A combination of short-term measures and a long-term measure that is tied to total shareholder return. We have a question submitted by William Phillips and Leslie Phillips. Has any outside entity shown any interest in taking over this company? When will shareholders see a return? On the first point, no, we haven't received any takeover proposals. When will shareholders see a return? As I said in my speech and as Naomi reiterated, we are very focused on rebuilding value that shareholders have lost.
These things take time, but we're confident that we have turned the corner and shareholders will begin to see some returns. Whilst as a board, we keep an eye on the share price, our very much focus is making sure we're doing the right things and rebuilding value and that the shares will reflect that over time. Question from Geoffrey Hogan and Kathleen Hogan. When is the total board going to resign? Thank you, Geoffrey, and Kathleen. The share market price is poor. You haven't paid out a dividend. It is time for a complete clean-out. No prizes for poor performance. You collect your remuneration regardless. Look, they're fair questions. The share price performance has been unacceptable, and I totally acknowledge that. I do expect shareholders to be frustrated by the loss of value in their shareholdings. There has been substantial change.
I joined the board two years ago with a clear mandate from shareholders to create change and to create improvement. There's been significant change in the board since then, and you have five new directors on the board now, and we'll be replacing a new director in the following 12 months. The majority of that board has been here for less than two years, so I think I would ask for support for this board to demonstrate that we can rebuild value in the organization. The fifth question was provided by Carl Davies. The government is thankfully reviewing the 20+ year old Retirement Villages Act. What is Ryman's position on the repayment of residents' capital sum when they depart within a mandated timeframe? What timeframe would Ryman support? I'm going to hand over to Naomi for this one, please.
Thanks, Dean. We are supportive of the RVA review that is underway, and I'm monitoring that with interest. If you look at what has already occurred in Victoria, where we also operate, they have recently introduced a 12-month mandatory obligation for payouts, and that seems to us to be a sensible approach. We will continue to monitor the New Zealand process and make sure that our policy and position aligns with that. No Ryman resident has ever taken longer than the 12-month period to be repaid. We are very committed to making sure we get the balance between the customer and the operator right in that policy.
Thanks, Naomi. In terms of the previous question here, thank you for that. It was around maintenance and how do we manage our maintenance on such a large site and how do we think about maintenance over the lifecycle of the building? Good question. The board and the management are very conscious of the lifecycle of a village. In fact, we spent a lot of time yesterday at a board meeting talking about the lifecycle of our villages. Day to day, we have facilities managers on site, maintaining grounds, maintaining equipment, and plant. When people vacate, we refurbish the individual units. As you can see in the accounts, we spend, depending on the age of that unit, we average around NZD 30,000 a refit, depending on whether it's short or been long in terms of the person who was the resident there.
We know we're going to be updating that facility in the 15 to 20-year period from the day it started. We have a reasonable period after that where it doesn't get updated other than the individual units when people vacate. We haven't got any villages that are 50 years old. Time will tell as to what we do with those, whether we actually redevelop them on a staged process or whether there's a higher and better use at that time. At the moment, those points in time where we do reinvest do push, we've got across our portfolio, those businesses do continue to create strong cash yields after that 15 to 20-year refresh. My apologies, sorry.
Yes, the general have asked you after 15 years, your service levels.
Yes, apologies. I thought I had answered that. My comment was we don't have anything after over 50 years of age. Yes, we'll assess that on a project-by-project basis, whether we refit that as what's happened in the area. We have two villages that are around that, around 40. In 10 years' time, yes, we do consider those villages. While every individual village will have a different answer to that, to the extent we are going to do something to a village, we'll need to obviously have that discussion with our residents first. I don't believe there'll be a one answer fits all for those things. There's been a variety of buildings built over time, some with care, some with no care, some very small, some large. I think the answer will be separate for each.
We are very aware of that, and we're thinking now about what will we do with those two that are 40 now, so in 10 years' time will be 50. We're thinking about that now. No problem. Let's come back into the room. This gentleman here.
Hello. It's Jim Burrows here. Hearing what you said about the large holding of land for future development, if you have to quit some of that land, is the zoning that that land has got only suitable for aged care developments, or can it be changed to residential housing developments or some other zoning, or is it just tied that you have to sell it to another business in the same sort of business you're in?
Yeah, no, every site in the land bank, nine or ten of them have all got different stages of zoning. Some of those have been rezoned for aged care and retirement living, but nothing would stop a buyer if we did choose to sell one of those thinking it's not suitable for us going forward to request a rezoning of those things. They're all different across all of the portfolio. Sure.
How do you see the value of that land if you had to sell it with a different zone on it, perhaps just ordinary residential houses, to what the original cost price was and what holding costs have been? Do you see yourself getting out of it without losing your shirt, or do you see yourself getting out of it with a slight profit?
Sure.
You must have done these valuations.
We have. We haven't done them. They've been independently valued, willing buyer, willing seller, and their view is what we could achieve if we chose to sell that in the market today. It was NZD 370 million, I think, across those sites.
You're going to have to first ask him the cost price and the holding price.
Yeah, I'd say you want to do about half of it.
Thank you.
In their balance sheet at the moment, they are valued independently at NZD 370 million. What we paid for that 70, I don't know that original cost because under the accounting rules, we're required to value those in our accounts at the value as at today. That's the requirement of the accounting rules, and we get that independently valued. What that would say, if you chose to sell those nine properties today, that's.
Where's the transparency?
Yeah, for what it was, it wasn't looking as good for us. It sold today.
Yeah. Relative. The profit relative, sorry, could you just clarify just in front of you? The profit relative to, yes?
You've got some holding costs, holding it all this time.
Yes.
You want to cash out of it. Quite often, land that's been zoned for this sort of activity, you usually had to pay a premium to get it.
Yeah.
You're going to get out of it. You're going to sell it to Somerset, or you're going to sell it to, you're going to put a road through it. How's the side of it? What's the actual getting out of it position?
I don't know the cost position of those individual sites that have been bought over seven or eight years. I can't answer that question of what the valuation is today relative to our cost. I don't know the answer to that. Ultimately, the question is what's the value today? What I bought my house for seven years ago is kind of irrelevant to what the market price is today. They'll lend against today's values, what they'll lend against, not cost. They will lend against value.
You'll get more, but you're trying to take yourself out of it.
Yes.
Which means you're going to sell stuff.
Potentially, hopefully at those values that the independent valuers told us they are worth. That would be our expectation of what we would sell it for. Apologies, I don't know the answer to that. Next question, please.
Do I say testing, testing? Oh, yes, I do. My question is, I am bitterly disappointed that you did not acknowledge the tragic death and preventable death of Elizabeth Nichols. I fully am aware that Health New Zealand had not paid for that level of care. The handling or mishandling in the newspaper was absolutely appalling. It was prevaricating, obfuscating, et cetera, et cetera. Why on earth, when you want to step up and increase the share for the shareholders, don't you offer tracking devices? You'd lost a woman in the North Island. That's newly come into the paper. Incidentally, my cat Simba, in 2005, used to roam the hills above Westmoreland, and he had a tracking device. You need to lead from the front, ahead of other retirement villages, and offer that, that they could have tracking devices. Thank you.
Thank you. I might just hand over to Naomi to address that specific point.
Thank you. I think your point about just acknowledging that passing, our deepest condolences go out to Elizabeth's family. We've been in close contact, and we and our team were incredibly saddened by that event. In terms of tracking devices specifically, it is one of the things that's actively being discussed with Health NZ because they set the pricing of aged care in New Zealand. They effectively set the standard of care that we can provide. We are very keen to make sure that as we see increasing incidences of dementia in the older community, which is occurring, that we have the right tools and ways to care for people at different stages, not just at the secure dementia care level, which is a different level.
The concerns you raise and points you raise, we are very mindful of, and it is an ongoing and active discussion, not just by Ryman Healthcare, but by the whole sector about how we make sure we care for people experiencing dementia in the best way we can, recognizing people also want their freedom as well. A good point in terms of raising it. We need to keep looking at those opportunities.
Violence in, I mean, David's wife there on the left, here, has she ever wound up any. No,
not happy just now
because she was incredibly stressed. She was out of her normal environment. Yes, have a look at the statistics in the newspaper. We're all going to get dementia.
Thank you. Next question, please.
Good morning. My name's Andrew Ott and I'm quite a reasonably long-standing shareholder. I would just like to say that I was quite saddened to learn over time about the self-inflicted problems that Ryman Healthcare has been suffering from, let alone the external factors. I would like to thank the existing board and all the work that's been done with addressing all those problems and your candor with talking about them. Just on the capital management and debt levels, the number of shares of Ryman 's just a bit over doubled now with the two capital raisings. I would like the board to consider when looking at capital management to consider the unhappy thought about things like another pandemic and if suddenly your resale has slowed down and you are still buying out exiting people.
Take that sort of thing into account when you talk about dividends, because my personal view is I would like to see Ryman have a strong balance sheet and if anything stronger than you might sort of think is necessary from a conventional sort of point of view. If you are going to keep buying out exiting people and not reselling them, then obviously your debt levels can blow up yet again. Personally, I'd be happy for you to defer a dividend for longer to strengthen your balance sheet so that if external factors do hurt the business for a year or two, you don't have to suddenly have another dilutionary cash issue at a cheap price because the share price has fallen because of what's happened over a year or two. I have two other questions. Should I carry on?
Sure, I'll just answer that, Andrew, while we're there. I think those points are very valid. I think this board will be conservative on those things. As we think about the capital that sits inside the business, we've got shareholders' capital, we've also got residents' capital, some NZD 5 billion of residents' capital, and we've got bank capital. The billion, we owe that back to a relatively vulnerable community. That's often a large part of their life savings. I think all of those things lead to a conservative desire around how we think about how much borrowings the business should have. I think going forward, you'll see a more conservative capital structure than maybe you've seen in the past. I concur.
Thank you. Just another question. The Chief Executive talked about the demand for care beds growing. In a Ryman village, if someone needs to go into care, could they receive care in their apartment or whatever until there's a bed available in the actual care facility? I.e., if the care facilities are full up, what's going to happen to people who need care, who are not in, who don't actually have a care bed yet?
Yeah, no, good point. In terms of that, obviously we're monitoring the health status of all residents at that time. We're conscious inside a village if someone could be needing more care, even if they're in an independent one now. We think about that and where that's transitioned. In a managed way, people will be able to find a bed inside our village. If it's extremely urgent, something's happened, they've fallen, they're likely to require hospital care before they come back to us. We'll have a window of opportunity to make sure that we might leave that bed available for that person when they come back. Because we're not running at 100% full, we're 96% as 98%, so invariably we do have capacity available. Be very conscious of providing that continuum of care, which is so important for Ryman, for residents to be able to have that care.
I'm not aware of many circumstances, if any, where an independent resident has not been able to gain care inside our facilities.
Would you have a policy of actually not running at 100% with care beds, i.e., keeping some vacant beds available for unforeseen emergencies where a resident suddenly does need care?
Naomi, that's quite an operational question. I want you to jump on that.
Perhaps just to your point, to highlight, this is the unique thing about the Ryman model. 30% of our capacity is care, is residential care, 20% is serviced apartments, and 50% is independent living. If you compare that to others in the market, they are typically 10%-15% care and the remainder retirement living. It's a very big difference in terms of our model. That's why we communicate with such confidence the care offering being there when people need it at the level they need it. How we operate today is that we will provide rest home and even in some cases hospital level care, both in the care center as well as in some of our villages and parts of our villages in serviced apartments. We also provide an assisted living offering outside of residential aged care.
There is a really full continuum as people's needs change, that the model is there to accommodate. By being in the village, you are at the front of the queue and the staff are on site to support you with the care needs that you have. We have real confidence in being able to provide that even with the demand that is coming.
Right, because obviously people who move into a village, it'd be disruptive, to put it mildly, to be forced to actually move somewhere else totally if they have to need care suddenly.
Yes,
totally understand.
That does happen.
I think it is in very rare instances, and normally for a short period of time, they might be offered a spot in another nearby village until we can secure at the right village. That's what we've done in some of those cases where that's occurred.
They could move somewhere else, but you would work on getting them back in as soon as possible.
Absolutely.
Right, thank you. I have one other question.
Sure.
Just with respect to sales of units that have been vacated as opposed to the new developments, are you able to give any further update beyond the quarterly numbers that you gave about how resales are tracking?
That was for 30 June. It was about three and a bit weeks ago. We're not intending, Andrew, to have a weekly update, but hopefully the move to a quarterly, which the business hasn't previously done, provides a good level of transparency for an investor to be able to see that progress. We'll be updating again post this quarter.
Thank you. That's all for me.
Thank you, Andrew. Any more questions, please?
Yes, Malcolm Aim, I'm speaking on behalf of my wife, who's sitting here, who's a current shareholder. I just wonder about the 40% increase in deferred management fees. There was discussion at the last AGM about how Ryman Healthcare's had lost a lot of money basically by having fixed weekly fees. I understand the policy has now changed, and you'll be able to update me on that. The new ORAs have a choice of a fixed weekly fee or one which increases with inflation or something similar. I just wonder how the market has accepted this. It's obviously costing people more. I also wonder whether people actually, when they're looking to move in, really understand the difference between a fixed weekly fee and one which has inflation aspects.
I mean, obviously one can see that over the last few years, inflation has got very high and of course the fixed weekly fee doesn't move. I just wonder what has happened since you now have an additional 40% in the deferred management fee because that's a pretty big factor in people's retirement thinking.
Yeah, good questions. I think the first point on that that I would make, Malcolm, is that there was no change to existing contracts. The 10,000 residents that live in either independent living or serviced, there was no change for them. From the 1st of October, we changed for new contracts. We've moved from a 20% deferred management fee when the person vacates on the entry price to 30%, which is approximately a 40% increase, but it's gone from 20%- 30%. We looked at the numbers yesterday, approximately 90% plus are now signing up at 30%. That's been good progress for us. In terms of the weeklies, again, no change to the existing 10,000 people. For a new resident, we've offered a choice, which is exactly as you described.
You can fix that for life or you can have a number that's lower, but will move up by the pension. Very approximate, in a New Zealand village, it's around NZD 200 per week, plus you would inflate that with superannuation, or it's approximately NZD 245 if you wanted to fix that for life. What we're seeing, and as we talked about at the full year result, it's approximately 50/50 . People are choosing one or the other, which is the feedback's been positive that people now have a choice on those things. Thanks, Malcolm.
Thank you. My name's Lance Bunting, and I'd like to ask these questions in support of all the shareholders. Could you please confirm that these financial figures demonstrate Ryman's current financial position? This info is freely available online on New Zealand Stock Exchange, Morningstar, and Yahoo Finance. Under the income statement for year ending 2025, it says revenue in for Ryman NZD 759 .16 million. Yet you still lost NZD 436 million for the trading year, and total debt is NZD 1.71 billion. I say it again, NZD 1.71 billion still total debt. My question is, how do you think you're ever going to get out of this nosedive unless you're forced to have another NZD 1 billion capital raise? It appears to me that Ryman is using all the revenue in to service debt, interest, CapEx on old retirement villages and operating costs. There's no free cash.
There's no money to build and develop and go forward with new villages or apartment units, which is the only downstream sales that generate cash and profits for a business like Ryman. It's where you're going to go. It just appears as an impossible situation unless you're forced to have another NZD 1 billion capital raise, which will put the shares at NZD 1.50.
Thanks, Lance. Yeah, as a board, we believe there's a clear path through this. In terms of your numbers, you know, the revenue of NZD 752 million, that's effectively people's weekly care fees, weekly resident fees, and the deferred management fee. That translated at the bottom, as you said, to a loss of NZD 450 million. A large part of that was one-off write-downs of investment property, of care.
You've had two capital raises on the NZD 1 billion each. NZD 2 billion.
Yes.
That's a lot of money to rip up.
Yes.
We've got the shares sitting at NZD 2.47.
Yes.
Now you've got another nosedive in front of you. Explain how you're going to get out of it if possible.
Yes. No, I, as I said in my speech, Lance, I think we have turned the corner. For your analogy of a nosedive, I think we have pulled out of that nosedive. We believe that result did not have the new capital in it in terms of interest saving. It did have it in that closing debt number. In terms of the interest saving of NZD 50 million a year, that's coming this financial year. In terms of business improvement, we've taken operating costs out. We also believe in terms of the stock that we've built up, we've got 12% vacancy at the moment. As Naomi talked about, you know, we're looking to release over NZD 500 million from already built, already available to sell units. We can see a clear path to reduce that NZD 1.7 billion worth of debt to a level that's manageable for the business.
What you don't see in those numbers is that ability to release capital through selling down that stock that we have just delivered in the last 12 to 18 months.
To reduce NZD 1.7 billion of debt, you just can't literally generate enough free cash. It's basic arithmetic. I know you talk the talk, and it all sounds good and appreciated if it's from the board. You guys have got to face facts. We ripped up NZD 2 billion. What's the next move?
Yeah, I think, Lance, in our view, we do have a path through this. It doesn't require additional equity raising. We're very sensitive that we have raised capital off shareholders, and it's been a very challenging return for them. I've acknowledged that. We don't believe that we require additional capital from shareholders. We believe that there is enough capacity in the balance sheet to pay that debt down through selling licenses to occupy for the buildings that we have delivered in the last 18 months, which we haven't sold yet. We have not sold yet. We currently have 1,200 vacant units out of 10,000 units. That's 12%—we've declared that.
Even if you were to clear a third of those, 400 units at roughly NZD 800,000, which has been our average realization in the last 12 months of a mixture of independent, and there's NZD 320 million by itself, and we've still got 8% vacant. That vacancy piece, Lance, in my view, in the board's view, is the way in which we can release capital and pay that debt down.
I think that's a reasonable approach. The shares at the moment are NZD 2.47.
Yes.
Where do you anticipate, with the good work you're planning, in 12 months from now, what do you think Ryman's share price on a good day could be?
That's tempting to have a swing at that, but I won't. I think I'd be breaking some laws if I did that without being a financial advisor.
Okay, being fair, we'd expect it to move off NZD 2.47. We'd expect it to move up. If it's still NZD 2.47 or less, I think the whole board, yourself, the lobbyist should resign in 12 months if it's still there. There's a challenge.
Yep.
I think if it's still $247 or less, you're all gone.
Yep. As I came on board two years ago, and you know that was with a clear mandate to create positive change. It's been a hard two years as we've had to reset the business. I wasn't here for the first capital raise, but I was certainly here for the second one. We've changed the board, we've changed the leadership team, but the proof will be in the eating, and I think we have to stand here and be accountable totally.
Just a last comment with respect. Summerset shares NZD 11.50. You just made a statement in your entry speech that you're Ryman Healthcare's retirement market leader. It's not actually true. I would say Summerset is the market leader, and perhaps you guys can take a leaf out of Summerset's book. They sell the same number of units as you, 1,200, and they made NZD 400 million. They didn't lose NZD 400 million.
Yeah, fair comments.
Thank you.
Hello, the name's Ray Spring, and I'm quite amused at the meeting, actually. We can see the interesting side of it. Would you like to consult a crystal ball and give us when we are going to get some dividends paid and how much you think dividends per share would be?
Yeah, I'm not going to go to that crystal ball, actually. You know, I think the two questions are actually, that's ultimately the challenge, isn't it? What do you do with that level of debt? How do you pay that down? At what stage should you start paying out a dividend out of your cash? That's obviously the contrast of options that we all have. I think as we've committed to shareholders, we're reviewing that now and we'll announce it this financial year. Questions down here. Sorry.
David Kingston, again, Chair. Look, I empathize for shareholders' frustration today because it has been a tough period. Unfortunately, I'm a recent shareholder. I'm probably the only one here today who's slightly ahead. I empathize for what's happened. My issues are focused on shareholder value. Totally appreciate that you have two issues, shareholder value and resident experience. Without good resident experience, you don't have a business. I appreciate that the other side of it is very, very important. A few comments to contextualize a couple of questions, Chair. They're actually supportive comments of the new people. I think you're doing a good job. Ryman is a fallen angel. It once was a glamorous star, but two to three years ago, the gloss fell off. It went from being an icon into the sin bin off the ground.
People have said today, which is true, the woeful share price performance peaking at near NZD 15, currently NZD 2.40-ish. As the gentleman before said, this is not an industry-wide malaise, Chair. Somerset has held up pretty well. Other stocks will come back to have performed so much better. There are only two companies in this group that are performing badly: Ryman and also in Australia, Lifestyle. They got caught up in a very tough legal dispute. I think they're an exception. Ryman stands out as an underperformer. I don't think that's the problem of the current people. I think you're doing some good stuff. To contextualize it, the current market cap is NZD 2.5 billion, Chair.
If you deduct the NZD 1.9 billion of issues in 2023 and 2025, it puts a value on the old Ryman, which is the responsibility of the old board, the old management team, of an appallingly low NZD 600 million. Don't need a calculator. NZD 2.5 billion minus the NZD 1.9 billion emergency issues raised, NZD 600 million for the old Ryman is a very sad indictment. Smart people learn from mistakes. We all make mistakes, but smart people learn from them. What's gone wrong? Debt was ridiculously excessive. The gentleman refers to current debt. I think it's manageable, but it was excessive. Developments, as I said to Scott, in my opinion, are out of control. Developments are exciting. Everyone likes doing a new development, sexy new thing. Invariably, the return, if eight times out of ten, is worse than the whiteboard. I think developments have been a debacle.
Clearly, the operational corporate costs have been excessive. Good to hear, Naomi, you're moving on that. To be frank, Chair, I think the previous board or management who signed off on 10-year fixed price contracts, that is reckless and cavalier. You cannot forecast in 10 years. To sign off on fixed service fees for 10 years is mind-boggling. You know the 10-year arrangement. It reminds me, Chair, of Icarus, the Greek god who flew too close to the sun. We know what...
Excuse me, Chair, could you just generally have a question?
I do, sir. I'm contextualizing it.
Could you hurry up, please?
I think the context is relevant to the question, sir. The party came to an abrupt end and we're now dealing with a painful hangover. Excessive debt has been fixed with two major share issues. Good. Cash flow is still negative, NZD 94 million, far too much being spent on risky development capital. Currently, as we've talked, 12% of vacant units. Huge change essential. I admire what you've done and I admire, Chair, your apology. I think that's good. Things are underway. Great that you've changed the resident contracts to more economic levels. I accept it takes a while to turn around a seriously underperforming company. Your address last year, Chair, said you expected to target positive free cash flow. It didn't happen this year, but hopefully next year. NTA down to NZD 4.18, but the stock trades at a 40% discount.
Solution is, and I'll come to my questions in a minute, it all comes down to free cash flow. Every business is a function of free cash flow. You can have a period where no free cash flow, but ultimately you've got to get free cash flow. It's the panacea that can repair investor faith in Ryman and the fallen angel. The solution is clear. Curtail development. Sell some of the NZD 370 million vacant sites as-at. In my opinion, Naomi's aim to release NZD 500 million cash over three to five years is a bit conservative. I appreciate you're very new, Naomi. I think you should be able to do that in two years. Like selling half the vacant sites and, Chair, as you mentioned, reducing the vacancy from 12% to 8% releases another NZD 300 million. Those two things alone can pull NZD 500 million out. I am optimistic.
I think providing there's an urgency, the new board, the new management team is a good team. I think shareholders should be patient. You are new. You inherited a lot of bad legacies. My two questions are, do you believe that you can achieve the NZD 500 million cash out in one to two years rather than the three to five years? Do you believe you can improve the operational cash flow by the target NZD 100 million- NZD 150 million? You believe you can achieve that in the next one to two years. I think you're pulling out NZD 46 million this year, Naomi. I would like to think that you can pull those numbers out in one to two years. The second question is the positive news also, Chair. There's a lot of positives amongst the gloom, but there's a lot of interest in the sector.
Aveo was just purchased for NZD 3.5 billion. Regis and HK stock is at an all-time high in Australia. Lendlease is looking to sell its retirement villages. Arvida was bought by Stonepeak at a pretty good price in the last year or so. There's a lot of interest, which is therefore why I believe that you will be able to sell a number of those undeveloped sites at a reasonable price. In my view, not through anything to do with the current board, but the previous people, you've lost the right to grow. You have to stabilize the company first. They're the two questions. Are you confident of selling the undeveloped sites quickly? Can you expedite the NZD 500 million cash out and the NZD 150 million operational improvement? Thank you.
Thanks, David. In terms of a lot of those points, yeah, we agree, you know, and we are on our way to making those improvements. We've set those three to five-year goals. Our ambition is to go faster. We're trying to go as fast as we can, but these things do take time. I think the goals that we've set are very achievable. Whether we can achieve them faster, time will tell. I think this board and management does believe we need to re-earn the right to grow, hence the decision to cease new developments. It was a bike that was going very fast at a developed speed wobble, isn't the way I think about that. The only way, as a youngster, I remember that fear going down a hill. The only way is to pull over. That's what we're doing. We will need to regather.
We believe there's an enormous amount of value to be released from the current business, let alone building increased villages. If we can get that formula right again, which the business did have right for at least 30 years of its existence, if we can get that right and we have the capital capacity to do it, we will go back towards growth, but we need to demonstrate and rebuild that confidence. Right, next question, please. Down here.
My name's Rowan. My question is about valuations. In my experience, it seems that about 80%, at a bit of a guess, and this doesn't just apply to Ryman Healthcare, it's across the whole sector, that people don't understand valuations and how each chain of villages arrives at valuing their properties. As I understand it, the valuation company stands alone, has nothing to do with any valuations of houses or commercial buildings or anything else. How do they arrive at the valuation of retirement village properties? Do they consider the fluctuations in the housing market? I hear many people say that the money they get from the sale of their house is not going to be enough to buy them into a retirement village. That doesn't matter which chain of retirement villages. A few questions there, please.
Sure. In terms of the valuers, firstly, they are independent of the board, which I think is important for shareholders. We don't seek to exercise judgment on top of that. What their valuation is, is what we put into the accounts. I think that's the first point. Secondly, they are very experienced valuers across retirement living, commercial buildings, residential. We use CBRE and James Lang LaSalle, across New Zealand and Australia. Credible organizations. Their valuations are very detailed. They do it on a per resident basis, per village. I like to joke that when they push the button, the lights dim when their model runs. They look at expectancy and what they expect house prices to be over time.
It's a detailed 25-year cash flow forecast where they're trying to estimate what house prices will do, which indicates what our unit prices will go up by in terms of our licenses to occupy. There's a lot of forecasting going in there, often knowing the start of what people paid, the average age, and what kind of capital we've got tied up. Then it's a forecast for 25 years. We need to trust their judgment as to what that is. That's the valuations that we include in the balance sheet. It's a very detailed exercise by them.
How often do those valuations occur?
They come to the villages annually, and they do a desktop every six months. It is very frequent. Some might say, why do you do it even six monthly? It is a very frequent exercise.
In other words, it's very up to date.
Yes.
When you get to the last person asking a question, I'd like to make a comment, please, about Kevin Hickman.
We will do. Thank you, Ron.
Yes, hello, Russell Miller here. I would just like to know more. I appreciate that the situation Ryman finds itself in is due to the incompetence of previous directors and management. I would like to know more about the commitment you guys have got to the recovery in Ryman Healthcare. I mean, with Ryman Healthcare selling at roughly a 40% discount to NTA, if you guys have got real confidence in that, are you aggressively buying? Everybody knows there was a massive shortfall in the recent equity raise, and the underwriters would have taken an absolute bath on it. We all know that. Did you guys support it? Have you been buying since?
Yeah, all directors who had shares participated fully in the rights issue that happened in February. We all followed our money. There is a minimum share purchase requirement of all directors to over five years own the equivalent of their fees. Some of us are at that level now. Some are still acquiring shares. We want them to put their money where their mouth is so that we are aligned. You would have seen Naomi invest twice now in terms of demonstrating a high degree of confidence in what we can achieve at the business. I think that's a very good sign for investors that a new CEO is prepared to write a check and buy shares.
As I look at it, all the board own shares, we've continued to participate, and new management have also bought shares, as has the new CFO, as we released at the stock exchange the other day.
Yeah, I agree. It's great to see Naomi doing that. You know, Warren Buffett, as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, was on NZD 100,000 for many, many, many years. Maybe Naomi could look at that sort of a salary with the huge upside there is to Ryman stock.
Yes, Russell, I might get you to come and help me with my negotiation next year with Naomi. We'll open up at NZD 100,000 and see how we go. I think that alignment is a very important point. All joking to one side, I think having alignment and skin in the game is important and a very fair question. Thank you.
Hello, my name's Alowette Bomer, and I'm a shareholder as well as having a family that's under the care of Ryman Healthcare. I have to say that generally we've been very happy with the care that my mother has received, and I think she's probably outgrowing the algorithm that was in place. We're a beneficiary on the one side and losers on the other. I'm just thinking though that the model that Ryman Healthcare started with 40 years ago doesn't quite fit people's expectations about what elderly care will require, and it certainly isn't the kind of care that I'll want for myself in the future, even though I know I will need care.
I'm just wondering whether you're looking at that as a future way of changing the model, which may also, on the one hand, be more expensive for people in the dementia years as opposed to people that are very fit and glamorously living the Hollywood dream. Whether this is really what the government's going to pay for and what your shareholders are going to be interested in in the future. I don't know, I'm sure you're very aware of all the points that I've brought up, but I feel that you're always behind the game, and it's hard when you're a big unwieldy kind of organization.
There's several questions in there, the future planning that you as a board who are trying to save this colossus and working very hard at it aren't going to be, again, behind the eight ball again when we need to look at this because obviously the previous board wasn't called to account soon enough. I'm not sure about what the problem was with that, but I'll leave those questions with you now, and I do have a few more to go on.
Thank you. Why don't we answer the care piece first? Naomi, over to you.
Thank you for the comments and questions, and there are things that we're very mindful of as we work through our portfolio and strategy review. We know the trends are towards more in-home care, and people have in recent years lived for longer, and we're going through a big generational change as the boomers head into our target market and have both different expectations, but also different ability and capacity to pay for both care and retirement living. That's a key part of what we're looking at in that review to make sure we evolve the model to meet not just what demand looks like today, but how it is going to change. We do think the Ryman Healthcare portfolio is really well positioned because of its weighting towards care and assisted living.
That model of having the final move and knowing that the different levels of care are going to be available or assisted living at the point you or your partner might need them is a key part of that model. We are looking at how we evolve it with the change in demographics, government policy, and demand that is coming. There is as much opportunity in that as there are things we're going to need to manage around some of the risks. They're really good points you raise, and we're very mindful of them.
Thank you. I do think you have to devolve certain parts of your business to move forward in development. A new model ahead of what, I don't know what's happening in other residential cares. The issue of capital gains when people sell their units hasn't been discussed at all. I'm just wondering whether the government is going to push ahead with that or whether you are going to be under pressure when units come back on the market and that will change the profitability of those units.
Yes, we're not seeing any pressure to move to that model in New Zealand. There is a range of choices in the Australian market where some competitors share the capital gain but take a higher DMF. There is a discussion of who does the refurbishment that's often shared, who pays the selling and marketing cost that's often shared. It's a kind of an unknown risk-reward at the end of the day.
I'm quite surprised that you don't feel under any pressure in New Zealand because.
All our competitors are the same, Aloutte. They're all on a deferred management fee. I think people like that model and our feedback. You talk to our competitors in Australia, when they offer the choice, the vast majority of people want to know what that fee will be when they depart. Their families want to know that fee when they depart. Having that fixed on the way in, I actually think is a better option for people. Certainly that's the feedback that we get from people, that they like that piece. It's the industry norm in New Zealand. We're getting no pressure from people to switch that model, in which case you have to reset all the economics at that stage.
You're saying you use that as a trade-off?
Sorry, trade-off? What do you mean by trade-off?
Not staying with the price and then the depreciation and then the deferred fee rather than offering a capital gains on that unit.
Yes, the deferred fee is on the opening price. The cost to refurbish falls to us, and the cost to resell that unit falls to us. That clarity means the person knows that the weekly fee and that fee at the end is all they will need to pay throughout their life.
Okay. Now, the other question I have, like being a shareholder, it would be really helpful for me if you didn't use so many abbreviations. I know that for other people, they might be clear as, but when I'm looking at the screen, I'm sorry, it's gobbledygook when.
Apologies.
When there's abbreviations, I'm not sure.
Apologies, that's easily fixed. We'll do that.
My last statement really is a statement rather than a question, just to say good luck for the trials ahead.
Thank you, Aloutte. We really appreciate the interest and contribution of questions, and we're trying our best.
Yeah.
Thank you for your support.
will be watching you.
It could be a short meeting next year. We might briefly go to online before we come back, and I'm conscious we've had the floor open for a while. At the end of the day, that's good. I have a question received from Joshua Fong. First of all, warm welcome to the new CEO and CFO. I'm also very pleased as a shareholder to see the various initiatives already put in place. I understand the recent rights issue was fully underwritten, and because entitlement shareholders did not take up their full entitlements, the underwriters had taken up the unsubscribed rights. My question is, how many of these underwritten shares are still held by the underwriters and sub-underwriters? PS, great call for making it a fully underwritten rights issue. Thank you, Jashua.
As we disclosed with our institutional offer and then the retail offer, of the roughly 328 million shares that were raised, 53 million were not taken up by shareholders in their right or in their over entitlements, leaving 53 million to fall to the underwriters and the sub-underwriters. We had visibility on the sub-underwriters, and that was primarily our existing large institutional shareholders. We're not aware that stock is still held by the investment banks. As I said, most of the sub-underwriters were long-standing Ryman investors. We're not sure how much of that has traded since. If the question is leading towards, is there an overhang? Not to our knowledge. Are there any more online questions? Hayden. What is happening to the land at John Ryman Place, Areki, Auckland? That is the Kohi Marama property, the leasehold property that we've got there.
That's in our land bank, and that's part of the current review as to whether we retain that or divest that. That will be as part of our announcements later in the year when we work through strategy. Question asked by Joshua Fong. Recently in Victoria, there was a ruling against Lifestyle Communities regarding their deferred management fees policies. Would that have any impact on our operations in Victoria? No, the answer is no. One of the issues that Lifestyle Communities had, and David referred to it as well, was a fee was coming off the final value, not the opening value. Under legislation there, because it's not a known fee, that was breaking the law. Their rules there are you have to be explicit about the cost to live in that village, and they couldn't be explicit because you didn't know what the value would be.
Those deferred management fees are being ruled apparently as illegal in Australia. Under our contracts, they're always on the opening price, and so the incoming resident is fully aware of what the deferred management fee is. We're fully compliant with law in Victoria. That ruling will have no impact on Ryman. Any more questions, Hayden, from online? From Benjamin Ruffle, has the board given any thought to a Bitcoin treasury strategy? The acquisition of the scarce digital real estate using a small portion of earnings has been demonstrated by several companies overseas as an intelligent strategy for driving shareholder returns. The first mover advantage on the NZX has not yet been taken. Thank you, Benjamin. I must admit this is not something that we've been considering. It's unlikely that we'll consider that. Anything else online?
Bojiao Yu Chen, are you going to hold future AGMs in Auckland or all future AGMs in Christchurch? I personally think this venue has worked well for us for a couple of years, but that's not the first question I've received either. This AGM or when I'm going to our villages, I'm conscious we've opened a number of new villages in Auckland. I think the board will consider whether we should move it around to give residents and shareholders in other communities the chance to meet us face to face. We'll have to consider that. A question in from Kaushik Patel. Having lost most of our value and coming back to shareholders for more equity twice in the last 18 months has been painful.
I fail to understand what board I had understanding of fast changing of what the board had an understanding of the fast changing markets in the sector. Also, please note Summerset has managed to perform and secure shareholder value. Please note any further financial write-offs should completely destroy credibility. It is to be absolute hands-on board, not just getting comfortable with sitting on your fees. They should invest in Ryman. As I've acknowledged, we apologize for the performance for shareholders over that time. Your new board is very focused on rebuilding that value. The comment around Summerset, yes, while there have been some factors that have been common to all of us, they have been very much compounded here at Ryman. I'm not looking to point the blame at anywhere but our own performance. A question from Kennedy Man: Please explain the full write-off of deferred tax assets.
Historically, we have accrued deferred tax assets in our balance sheet, and they have been above our deferred tax liabilities. We've actually carried a positive balance. What we chose to do, and what is more consistent with others in the industry, is to have deferred tax assets no greater than our deferred tax liabilities. That required us to write off our excess tax losses from an accounting perspective. What I would say importantly is those tax losses are still available to us. From an accounting perspective, we've chosen a more conservative stance. Those tax losses are not lost to the organization going forward. A question from John Rogerson regarding board clean-outs. I would recommend that shareholders watch Dean's interview on the Markets with Medicine YouTube channel for a clearer picture on this. Thank you, John. Are there any other questions online, Hayden? More. Okay.
Note the savories aren't getting too cold out there. From Shane Laurent: Retirement villages do not have capital gains because they do not sell any investment property residents. Capital gain is a defined term in dictionary.com. Property must be sold. The gain on sale of property, bonds, or shares. Retirement villages have cash gains, which is the difference between the next resident entry payment and the outgoing resident entry payment. That's correct, Shane. We sell a license to occupy. We do not sell our buildings, and those changes in value are not taxable because we're effectively not selling the property. We're selling a property right for that person to have that as their home for as long as they wish, but it is a license to occupy, not a sale. Shane, you're correct. From Andrew McKinsey: Have there been any updates from the government around funding for care beds? Naomi.
Thank you. We have seen a 4% uplift in care funding from the New Zealand government this year, which is a step in the right direction. It's not yet enough, though, in terms of getting the government-funded care fees in New Zealand to the level they need to be, both to cover costs, but also to support a return for shareholders on investments that are being made and need to be made in new capacity for aged care in New Zealand. That's something that we're actively discussing with the New Zealand government, both directly and as well as through the Aged Care Association. We are really focused on making sure we get the funding model in New Zealand to a sustainable setup long-term and have the investment being made that is needed in this sector.
We're cautiously optimistic, Naomi, aren't we?
We are.
Particularly as we've seen what we think is the blueprint in Australia. Next question from Andrew Tuckey. At Edmund Hillary, substantial repairs are being done to a building built over fill. This was known as preloading sink substantially. Are there much more robust processes in place to identify and redesign when these issues are encountered? Yes, certainly at the Edmund Hillary Village, it's very site-specific. The site had been used as a quarry. The main reliving works are now complete at the village, and the hospital wing is now fully reopened. I do apologize for the inconvenience for residents. It's not something that we had anticipated would occur. Certainly some learnings from this. It's been a very significant process and obviously unsettling for residents. Hopefully, we're now through that. Some good learnings. Any other questions, Hayden? From Robert Hayward.
What are the potential financial implications of the growing groundswell of discontent as seen in the media from retirement village residents generally about the equity and delays in settlement about payout on the sale of occupation rights? I think Naomi mentioned that earlier. We are supportive of the Village Association review, and we are monitoring that. As I said, Victoria, I think Naomi said Victoria's recently said require mandatory repayment no later than 12 months. This seems to be a sensible approach. Currently, we repay within six months. I think the industry unsettlement is certainly not at Ryman. When I've met, and you've met as well with the Retirement Villages Association, they do hold us out as the gold standard in terms of how we behave with departing residents, ceasing our weeklies immediately, and repaying the capital. Asked by Raul Daru, is aged care profitable?
If not, what is the plan to achieve profit? As we've disclosed and Naomi's reiterated, we're looking to provide disclosure at the latest at the full-year accounts on the relative profitability of care and retirement living. We'll have that debate at the time. Part of it is obviously subjective where you allocate overhead inside a village, whether it's to care or retirement living. We're very conscious that shareholders would like to see that. We're leaning into that. Hopefully, when we stand here next year, we can have that discussion on the relative profitability.
There are no further questions online.
All right, thank you. I'm conscious of time, and we're going to have a finishing statement here. Are there any questions? Great. Maybe a closing statement here would be nice. Thank you. Rowan.
Like Dean said, he was at the funeral of Kevin Hickman, and I'm sure that the Ryman staff here today, most of you will have been together with people in the audience. For people who are watching this online, most of you will not have had the opportunity to attend Kevin Hickman's funeral in the Christchurch Town Hall. It was an amazing event, and in the eulogy that Dr. Kerr gave, he made the comment that when Kevin Hickman realized it was time to hand over to, I think, Simon Challies, he left a note on Simon's desk, and he said, "It's all yours, mate. Don't muck it up." At that time, I had occasion to talk to a friend who asked my advice about what she should do in relation to a very large company that has its head office in Auckland.
I suggested to this person what she should do. I couldn't believe it when it all went wrong. I said to her, "You should do so and so and so and so." I thought about this and realized because she had not had any involvement in this company and not a known person, it was going to be difficult. I said to her, "I'll sort it for you." An event was being held in Auckland, and I went to Auckland. I was introduced to a new staff member who had been the person who dealt with my friend's question, for want of a better word, or situation really. When I was introduced to him, he said, "Oh, you're from Christchurch, aren't you?" I said, "Yes." I think he'd been told about it. When we got to sitting down at this event, I was quite new to him.
I thought, here's my chance to talk to him. I sidled up to him and a guy about 40-ish. I said, "Tell me about your work history." He said, "My work history?" I said, "Yes, I think that's a reasonable question." He proceeded to tell me what he'd done. I'm not sure I believed it all, but the Managing Director of the company is a very astute person. At the end of his spiel, I said to him, "You've fallen on your feet with a job with this company. Sue doesn't suffer fools gladly, so don't muck it up." He had no response to what I said. Thank you to Kevin Hickman. Everyone knows, especially if you live in Christchurch, what Kevin Hickman, together with his partner John Ryder, did for Ryman Healthcare. Thank you.
is lovely to have Joanna Hickman here today as well. With no further questions at this time, I now bring the 2025 ASM to a close. I would like to thank you for your attendance here today and invite those of you present to enjoy light refreshments with the board and executive. I would also like to acknowledge the clear passion and interest that you all have in this business. I look forward to having a more optimistic discussion with you in 12 months' time, where hopefully we can deliver more positive news. This board is very committed to rebuilding the value. I appreciate your patience, your time, and your questions. Thank you very much.