Nursing home provider Regis rebounds from Covid-19 chaos

Listed aged care provider Regis says its earnings are beginning to normalise after a horror two years.

Aged care provider Regis has rebounded from Melbourne’s 112-day lockdown in 2020, reporting a 10-fold increase in bond revenue collected from residents.

ASX-listed aged care provider Regis has rebounded from Melbourne’s 112-day lockdown in 2020, reporting a 10-fold increase in bond revenue collected from residents.

Aged care residents can pay for their care via a refundable accommodation deposit (RAD), or bond, which is usually collected when they sell their home. On Monday, Regis revealed bond revenue had jumped to $47.1m in the first half of the financial year, representing a strong turnaround from the $4.7m that was collected during Melbourne’s marathon lockdown.

The company said this represented a normalisation, with RAD revenue totalling $46.1m in the first half before the pandemic struck. But it warned that challenges remained as it combats outbreaks of the highly infectious but less severe Omicron variant across its homes.

“Regis continues to manage through what remains a challenging operating environment with a number of its residential aged care homes impacted by the current Covid-19 outbreak,” the company told the ASX.

On Monday, the company appointed Sally Freeman, who has a background in risk management, as a non-executive director. “Sally’s distinguished career spans over 25 years, having worked as a partner at KPMG and Ernst & Young, with a focus on audit and risk management. She has consulted across many levels of both the public and private sectors and worked in London, Singapore, Perth and Melbourne,” Regis chairman Graham Hodges said.

Ms Freeman is also a non-executive director of ASX-listed Netwealth and Netwealth Superannuation Services, Eastern Health, the Regional Investment Corporation and the Melbourne Football Club.

As well as battling Covid-19, which further rocked confidence in the aged care sector following revelations of abuse and neglect at a royal commission, Regis was the target of a cyber attack in August 2020.

The company said the attack, from an “overseas third party” did not affect the delivery of care to residents.

“The company promptly implemented its back-up and business continuity systems and the incident did not affect delivery of resident care or services. The incident is not materially impacting Regis Healthcare’s day-to-day operations,” Regis said at the time.

Like rival Japara, which was taken over by Catholic healthcare provider Calvary, Regis found itself vulnerable to a takeover, with Washington H. Soul Patts (WHSP) lobbing two bids at $1.65 and $1.85 a share before walking away after failing to win support from Regis’s board.

“WHSP believes that the two proposals provided Regis shareholders with a highly attractive opportunity to realise value for their shares,” Soul Patts said at the time it withdrew its offer.

Regis shares rose 1.1 per cent to $1.84 on Monday.