Brookfield beefs up Aveo staff

Brookfield has been hiring staff for its retirement villages and aged care operator Aveo.

Canadian private equity firm Brookfield is believed to be bolstering the ranks at its newly acquired retirement villages and aged care operator Aveo, hiring staff from Australian-listed industry rival Stockland.

Following a prolonged sales process for Aveo overseen by Bank of America’s Australian team, the business was purchased by Brookfield around August for $1.3bn.

Stockland this year also made efforts to sell part or all of its retirement business through advisers Evans Dixon and Morgan Stanley.

Brookfield was believed to be a suitor of Stockland’s $1.5bn retirement business, with no doubt a plan in place to extract synergies through the ownership of both businesses.

However, the sales process was placed on hold, with many suspecting that suitors were not prepared to offer a high enough price for the business.

Some expect more deals could happen in the aged care space in late 2020 once potential suitors digest the findings of the royal commission into the aged care industry.

Questions remain as to whether Bupa stages an exit from the aged care industry after being hit hard during the royal commission.

Brookfield is expected to be focused on bedding down the acquisitions it has made in the healthcare and property space this year before embarking on any other major deals in the sectors. However, the private equity group is expected to offload the New Zealand pathology operations that sit within Healthscope, which it purchased this year for $4.4bn.

● DataRoom is taking a break and will return on January 13. Once again, the column would like to thank all the readers, supporters and contributors who have offered up many scoops, insights and key developments about takeovers, floats, deals and investment banking-related activity during 2019. On behalf of the column and all the team at The Australian, we would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.