Retirement Village Chain Bought For $2 Billion
The OIO has approved Stonepeak Alps BidCo Limited (Asia 38%, Middle East 33%, North America 16% and Various 13%) to buy 100% of the shares in Arvida Group Limited which has an interest in 186 hectares of sensitive land around New Zealand. Arvida Group Limited is owned New Zealand 84%,
Asia Pacific Region 7%, North American Region 4%, and Various 5%. The price paid was $2 billion.
To quote the OIO: “The Applicant is ultimately owned through investment funds managed by Stonepeak Partners LP, an American investment firm which invests in infrastructure and real estate. The Applicant is buying 100% of the shares in Arvida Group Limited (Arvida), an NZX listed entity, which owns and operates 35 retirement villages and aged care centres in New Zealand including 16 properties with sensitive land”.
“The Applicant intends to bring financial support to Arvida’s current business operations by investing capital to enable the development of approximately 1,000 new retirement village and aged care units across 13 development sites. This application was subject to a national interest assessment due to the presence of non-New Zealand Government investors from Asia and the Middle East. The Minister of Finance decided that the investment was not contrary to New Zealand’s national interest. Consent was granted as the Applicants have met the investor test criterion and the investment is likely to benefit New Zealand”.
CAFCA has been recording the misdeeds of transnational retirement village corporations for many years. For example, see “Factory Farming Of The Elderly”. In that case, the corporation in question was Bupa.
Arvida is a comparative newcomer to the industry but it has accumulated its share of misdeeds. In December 2023 it denied that it was going to sell to “an offshore infrastructure fund”, which had made an unsolicited approach. But, come July 2024, it had agreed to sell out to Stonepeak. And – coincidentally or not – that same month it proposed cutting worker’ hours, and therefore pay, at its Village at the Park Wellington retirement village (built on the site of the former Athletic Park).
“Arvida, who has 35 retirement communities across New Zealand, is proposing to cut more than 400 hours a week from care workers, nurses, and activity coordinators at its Wellington Village at the Park, in Berhampore. E tū spokesperson Rochelle Hill said they were proposing to cut 54 hours from the roster of registered nurses and more than 350 care hours from the remaining staff”.
“She said the cuts would result in job losses and a cut in quality of care. Hill said Arvida had advised them they had run a trial at five of their sites with the model they were proposing to implement at Village at the Park. ‘They’re saying they can cut over 400 care hours in a week from a roster and have no reduction in safety well-being or quality of life for their residents, and we strongly disagree with that’. She said Arvida needed to provide more information on why the cuts were necessary. She said if cuts were necessary, they wanted to work with Avida to ensure they were done in a way that did not impact residents’ care and was humane for staff”.
“Village at the Park director Tristan Saunders said no decisions had yet been made on any proposed changes. ‘We are currently engaging with our team, the unions and our residents on some proposed changes to the way we structure our team. In those discussions, we have provided assurances that our proposed changes would not affect the quality and safe delivery of our care services’”
“Right-Sizing” The Business. Yeah, Right.
“Saunders said: ‘We agree with E tū and the NZ Nurses Organisation (NZNO) that there are funding challenges for the aged care sector which we are having to work through. We will be continuing to discuss these issues with our Village at the Park care team and management as we work through our consultation and feedback process’. Chief Executive of the Aged Care Association (ACA) Tracey Martin said the proposed changes appeared to be about ‘right-sizing’ the business following the demands of the pandemic”.
“But Hill didn’t believe those demands had lessened. On Thursday about 150 people picketed against the proposed changes outside Village at the Park. ‘With fewer staff, we won’t be able to care for all of them because there won’t be enough time’, said E tū delegate and care worker Rita Narendra. ‘I don’t want any resident to stay in bed until the end of the shift’”.
“‘I don’t want to see residents not getting up to enjoy their life as they always do. I don’t want to see any resident ringing the bell with no one attending to them. It’s very sad’. Martin said she would be amazed if Arvida lowered their staffing to those levels. ‘That behaviour is unacceptable; I don’t believe that is what Arvida is doing’. She said the ACA would not stand for any member lowering its staffing to the point of abuse”.
“Meanwhile Village at the Park resident Lew Skinner said the proposed cuts had not been communicated clearly to residents. ‘Residents and their relatives are dismayed they had not been clearly told by Arvida what is happening’, Skinner said. ‘The two letters they’ve received had given no real information and had just confused people’” (RNZ, 20/7/24, Krystal Gibbens).
Unions and residents took protest action. “Staff, residents, families and neighbours of a Wellington retirement village yesterday protested against cuts to workers’ hours by $4.2 billion retirement giant Arvida Group, claiming people in care would suffer. But a director of the Wellington village said nothing was yet decided and assurances were given that proposed changes would not affect the quality or safe delivery of care”.
“‘Back off Arvida’, ‘we value our nurses and caregivers’, ‘stop the cuts’ and ‘union rights are human rights’ were signs carried by protesters outside Berhampore’s Village at the Park owned by Arvida. The event was run by E tū and the New Zealand Nurses Organisation and a union statement said Arvida was proposing to cut more than 400 hours a week from care worker, nurse and activity coordinator schedules”. Arvida pushed up net profit 69% from $82m to $139m in the last year and grew assets 12% from $3.8b to $4.2b”.
“Lew Skinner, a resident, said the proposed cuts did not make sense. ‘No one sees staff sitting around doing nothing. We see no fat in the system. These proposals affect all of us. Independent residents are part of the Village at the Park community, many are one short step away from moving into the care units’” (New Zealand Herald, 19/7/24, Anne Gibson).
The full October 2024 Decisions are at
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