GemLife upsizes IPO size to $750m, locks in key investors

GemLife operates on the Gold Coast, supplying manufactured homes to the 50-plus section of the market. Picture: Supplied

Retirement living group GemLife has upsized the value of its initial public offering at the weekend to $750m from $700m as it gets set to list with a market value of about $1.57bn on July 4.

DataRoom reported last week that GemLife was due to finalise the cornerstone process on Friday, with terms of the initial public offering out by the end of the King’s Birthday long weekend.

Preliminary indications have been the market value will be $1.57bn with at least 50 per cent free float.

The business will list on July 4, according to its preliminary timetable.

Earlier, expectations were the market value could be as high as $2bn.

DataRoom earlier reported the Puljich family owners were not selling any shares, and the pricing terms equate to about 15 times the group’s net profit, which is forecast to be $104m for the year to June 2026.

So far, the deal is said to have been well received by institutional investors, with the commitment by the family operators to keeping skin in the game being one of the major drawcards.

Working on the IPO are JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Highbury Partnership, Ord Minnett and Morgans.

GemLife sells manufactured homes to the 50-plus section of the market on Australia’s east coast and is a dominant player in the Queensland market.

It comes as Bain Capital last week finalised a $685m IPO for Virgin Australia, with the country’s second largest carrier to return to the listed market on June 24.

Retail investors will only account for less than $68.5m of the deal size after they were heavily scaled back along with hedge funds, and most shareholders would be institutional investors.