Quadrant selling down 37.2 percent stake in Summerset; shares halted

Friday 17th May 2013

Summerset Group shareholder Quadrant Private Equity is selling down its 37.2 percent stake in the retirement village operator, taking advantage of the stock's 34 percent advance this year.

QPE Funds Management, the Quadrant unit that holds the shares, "is in the process of selling part of its shareholding," Summerset said in a statement. QPE has asked Summerset to seek a trading halt for the transaction to proceed.

Shares of Summerset last traded at $3, valuing the company at $654 million, and have soared along with those of peers Ryman Healthcare and Metlifecare as investors are drawn to a sector with good growth prospects as the population ages.

Quadrant floated Summerset on the NZX in 2011, raising $123.6 million, made up of a partial sell-down and a primary capital raising of $50 million. The Australian private equity firm completed its full takeover of Summerset in 2010, buying the 50 percent it didn't own from fund manager AMP Capital Investors New Zealand.

An escrow period, preventing Quadrant from selling, ended in February, and it sold 40 million shares at $2.42 apiece in March. Last month, Quadrant managing director Chris Hadley said his buyout firm would reduce its holding in Summerset in a "very sensible fashion."

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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