Retirement village operator Aveo has rejected accusations that it has a "churn target" on how many residents should leave a year so it can profit from the exit fees.
Aveo chief executive Geoff Grady on Tuesday labelled a TV report on the ABC's Four Corners program, and reports in Fairfax Media publications as "one-sided" and said the company's written response to questions had been largely ignored.
Four Corners aired on Monday night its investigation into Aveo, highlighting concerns from former residents, lobby groups and lawyers into the company's business practices, including allegations of exorbitant maintenance and exit fees and complex contracts.
The program also referred to company presentations which state a turnover target of 10 to 12 per cent of residents each year.
Fairfax and Four Corners journalists worked jointly on the investigation, which triggered a slump in Aveo's share price on Monday.
Mr Grady on Tuesday said the accusation of a "churn target" was the most "objectionable" of the allegations levelled at Aveo in the report.
"We have been in this business for a long time and our experience is that about 10 to 12 per cent of our residents tend to go onto higher care or pass away or go onto other living arrangements every year," he told AAP.
"To suggest that we are somehow trying to make our residents depart is completely objectionable and against everything we believe in."
Mr Grady said Aveo was not looking at taking legal action over the media reports but said many residents were disappointed in the negative coverage.
Aveo did not give an interview to Fairfax or Four Corners for their reports but instead issued a written statement and subsequently released the document to the ASX.
On Tuesday afternoon Aveo issued a second statement which said the Four Corners program was "producing only part of the story".
Mr Grady said the company did make money out of the exit fees, which range as high as 40 per cent of a unit's entry price at its recently acquired Freedom Aged Care business.
The company has been standardising its exit fees at its 89 retirement home villages across Australia in the past two years to a new contract that requires an exit fee of 35 per cent of what they paid for their unit.
This is higher than the 30 per cent exit fee in previous contracts but Mr Grady said the new "Aveo Way" contracts had conditions including no refurbishment costs, no sales cost and a guarantee that Aveo will buy the unit if it doesn't sell within six or 12 months.
He said Aveo's return on investment on retirement assets is about six per cent, which is what ordinary landlords expect from their rental properties.
"To suggest that we are somehow making super profits and doing something contrary or different to what the industry is doing is objectionable," he said.
Shares in Aveo closed two cents, or 0.74 per cent, higher at $2.73 on Tuesday, following an 11 per cent plunge in the stock on Monday, which took shares to a near-two-year low.
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