The Aveo Group (ASX: AOG) share price hit a two-year low of $2.40 yesterday as the aged care home provider continues to suffer from the fallout of a negative media investigation into its operational practices.
For the six-month period ending December 31 2016 the retirement community home operator reported an underlying profit of $53.9 million, with earnings per share on underlying profit after tax up 7% to 9.5 cents. The group also reported that it generated a record total of 621 retirement sales for the period.
Aveo is a member of the S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AJXO) (ASX: XJO) index of Australia's top 200 companies and has a market value around $1.4 billion. It currently has 13,000 residents in 89 retirement villages across Australia and in addition manages a $456 million diversified property portfolio.
One of its major shareholders in Australian equities manager Perpetual Limited (ASX: PPT) sold down its holding in the business multiple times over April, May and early June, just prior to the joint Fairfax Media Limited (ASX: FXJ) and Four Corners investigation into the business was aired.
On June 27, Aveo issued a comprehensive response to the accusations against it, including addressing concerns over its complaints handling and stating that it does not have resident turnover or "churn targets".
