Christchurch retirement village owner to repay $8.6m wage subsidy, chairman departs

Retirement village owner Summerset Group will repay the $8.6 million Government wage subsidy, has issued new profit guidance and chairman Rob Campbell is retiring.

Summerset said it had made the decision to repay the Covid-19 wage subsidy it got in April.

It qualified for that because revenue fell by more than 30 per cent in April "when retirement unit sales fell to zero".

Rival Metlifecare had earlier repaid its wage subsidy.

After April, Summerset went on to report an underlying profit of $45.1 million for the first half of 2020 when revenue rose from last year's $74m to $82m.

Outgoing chairman Campbell said the board had been monitoring the situation "and had decided the time was right to return the wage subsidy. Summerset was in a stable financial position and the business outlook was positive."

Summerset has had no Covid cases in its many villages, it said.

Underlying profit for the December 2020 year will be $96m to $98m, it said today.

Summerset Group operates villages in Wigram, Avonhead, Casebrook, Rangiora and Prebbleton.