Management of healthcare trust changes hands

The founding shareholders of the management company, Martin Lyttelton and Brian Freestone, (who are associated with the listed Calan Healthcare Properties Trust) have sold their interest in the management company, for an undisclosed sum, to interests associated with Chris Donahoe and Cleary.

Donahoe already had a 33% stake in the business and was formerly the day-to-day manager of the fund, as well as the person who marketed it to advisers.

Affinity invests in the healthcare companies worldwide and have been one of the more volatile international funds on offer in the market. At one stage its unit price was in excess of $1.60 but now stands at around 96c.

Donahoe says he will take over running the company and Cleary will remain a passive participant in the business.

He says Cleary has made it clear that he wants to remain an adviser, as opposed to getting into the funds management business. Cleary has an interest in the fund as his clients are one of the biggest groups of unitholders.

Lyttelton said continued ownership of the management company no longer fitted with the strategic direction he and Freestone were taking but he was confident the trust was being passed into good hands.

The trust’s investment decision-making will continue to be made by United Kingdom-based health sector investor Framlington Unit Management.

Donahoe currently runs the Senior Healthcare trust which invests in the health sector in New Zealand. He says there are no plans to combine the two trusts.

He says his main job at the moment is to keep investors in the fund and to better communicate what the fund is doing and where it is going.