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Wed, 02 Oct, 2024 - 19:30

Property Editor Tommy Barker reports

FIVE nursing homes previously owned and operated by Aperee Living and able to accommodate 270 residents, part of the Cork-based BlackBee Group, are being sold for excess €9m combined on behalf of a receiver, with proceeds to flow back to investors.

Interest is primarily expected from operators in the elder-care sector, who may cherry-pick from the five offered for appointed receiver Gerard Murphy.

Other former Aperee group assets are in separate stages of receivership/development, after a consortium change in November of last year.

Interest may be shown by existing and scaling-up operators in the sector, such as Molam Healthcare, Care Choice, Curam Care Homes, Brookhaven Healthcare, Bartra Healthcare, French Group Emera, and Sonas Nursing Homes.

Three of the five Aperee-run nursing homes, which have just gone to market this week, are continuing to operate, while two have been closed within the past year, on foot of widely reported HIQA concerns.

Three of Aperee’s 10 homes were closed because of HIQA findings/HSE concerns.

The group also ran homes in Co Kerry and Co Waterford, among other locations, with investors coming via BlackBee, set up in Cork in 2014 and run by founder David O’Shea.

By last year, Aperee Group had up to 10 Irish nursing homes, accommodating 550 residents, and aiming to build to a far larger portfolio. It had also acquired sites for multi-million-euro developments in Cork’s Rochestown, by Mount Oval, and at Glanmire’s former Church of Ireland rectory, ear-marked for a flagship, 100-bed unit, before running in to financial difficulties.

Going to market this week, for sale by tender in one or more lots, via agents Cork-based Cohalan Downing, are nursing homes in Bantry, Belgooly, and Conna, in Co Cork, as well as in Callan, Co Kilkenny, and Ballinasloe, in Co Galway.

In Cork, Bantry (46 beds, on 1.8 acres) and Conna (47 beds, on 5.5 acres ) continue to trade, while the largest, Belgooly, near Kinsale, at 28,000sq ft and previously with 61 residents, is no longer trading and is vacant.

Also no longer trading and vacant is the 51-bed unit at Kilkenny’s Callan, while Galway’s substantial, 55-bed home at Ballinalsoe (28,000sq ft) is trading, overseen by the HSE.

The nursing-home portfolio of over 270 beds will be sold in one or more lots, on behalf of receiver Gerard Murphy, appointed by City Quarter Capital II, and “are all purpose-built in well-located areas, offering an opportunity to acquire a portfolio of scale with potential for further expansion”, say Margaret Kelleher, Ed Hanafin, and Rob Coughlan, of Cohalan Downing, setting a tender date of November 21, 2024, and with a data room established for expressions of interest.

While no guide price is officially issued for the individual assets, “in excess of €9m is expected for the entire”, they say.

“The Irish population is aging and there is a shortage of nursing-home beds in the country.

“The defensive characteristics of nursing homes are attractive to investors and this portfolio offers a scale of bedrooms that will be attractive to established nursing-home operators.”