Villa World sale: CEO of new owner Avid Cameron Holt says there are no plans for major cuts following acquisition of company

The new owner of Villa World says it has no plans for major job cuts in the wake of its acquisition of the Gold Coast developer.

Avid Property Group CEO Cameron Holt says there are no plans for major cuts at Villa World following its acquisition.

THE new owner of Villa World says it has no plans for major job cuts in the wake of its acquisition of the Gold Coast developer in a $290 million deal approved by shareholders last week.

Shareholders approved Avid Property Group’s offer to buy all the shares in Villa World, which was the Gold Coast’s oldest listed company, on October 11 for $2.345 per share.

On Wednesday shares were suspended from trading on the ASX following approval from the Supreme Court of NSW for the takeover.

Avid CEO Cameron Holt said there was no need for cuts as Villa World previously cut 40 staff earlier this year bringing its total down to 120 with 80 on the Gold Coast.

Villa World has seen strong sales at its Arundel Springs estate on the Gold Coast.

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“The hard work has already been done,” Mr Holt said.

“The intention is we will keep the Gold Coast office going and the vast majority of staff across both businesses will stay.

“The concept of coming in with a big knife or broom simply is not relevant. It will be business as usual but there will be cuts at the margin because there are duplicated roles.”

He said that referred to executive roles “in the main”.

Mr Holt said the new executive team, which will not feature Villa World CEO Craig Treasure who is stepping into a consultant role, would be announced next week.

Villaworld CEO Craig Treasure has stepped down from his position in the wake of the Avid acquisition and into a consultant role. Photograph: Jason O'Brien

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He said the intention was to retain the Villa World brand under a co-branding arrangement.

“We will do a brand strategy review in time but we see that brand working particularly in the housing space.

“So the intention is to retain it and you’ll see in the next few weeks we will cobrand the business as both Villa World and Avid.”

He said the company planned to leverage its land bank to expand the housing portfolio of the combined entity.

Post-takeover, the combined company has 12,000 lots and a pipeline worth $4.7 billion. “We are also looking at expanding into that medium-density area, which is largely where Villa World was heading anyway with townhouse-style product.”

Mr Holt said the southeast Queensland residential housing market was “strengthening”.

Avid is the Australian arm of US-based real estate funds manager Proprium.

Villa World was founded by Tony Bawden and Greg Phillips and listed in 1986.