Mirvac, Pacific Equity Partners in Serenitas race
Mirvac is believed to be working in concert with Pacific Equity Partners to buy the $1bn Serenitas land lease community business, with sources suggesting a deal might be signed within a fortnight.
DataRoom revealed PEP’s interest in Serenitas in February, but the private equity firm walked away from a transaction after carrying out exclusive due diligence in April.
However, it is understood that it is now back in talks with the target, owned by the Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC.
The understanding is that while PEP is fronting the deal, Mirvac is adding in sites from its land bank.
According to its half-year results, Mirvac has $35bn of assets under management, with $2bn invested in residential. It has a pipeline of 24,500 lots with an average vintage of nine years.
Earlier this year the company said it had increased its exposure to land lease communities.
Mirvac has previously looked at Serenitas.
Before PEP ended exclusive talks in April, the understanding was that it was prepared to pay just over $900m.
GIC’s price expectations have been closer to $1bn, and the suggestion in the market is that this time PEP may be prepared to pay something like that.
PEP is keen to buy the business for its Secure Asset Fund, which targets investments between $50m and $1bn in industries such as transport and logistics, waste, utilities and renewables, data and telecommunications, social and agricultural infrastructure.
Serenitas has been on the market through investment bank Goldman Sachs.
Private equity has been drawn to the land lease community sector because it caters for the growing ageing population.
Existing investments in PEP’s secure asset fund include Agright, Zenith Energy and Intellihub.
Macquarie, Brookfield, Hometown, Stockland and Warburg Pincus have also taken a look at Serenitas.
GIC owns 95 per cent of Serenitas and founder Rob Nichols owns the remainder.
The business was formed when GIC and Tasman Capital Partners bought Western Australia-based National Lifestyle Villages in 2018 from Navis Capital and Blackstone.
It owns land lease communities including Thyme Lifestyle Resorts, National Lifestyle Villages (the market leader in WA), The Vantage at Vasse, The Outlook at Albany and RV Homebase Fraser Coast, and a pipeline under development.
In land lease communities an operator owns the land and rents the site to residents, who buy a relocatable home for the site.
They are growing in popularity as a way to address housing affordability challenges.