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Just ace: PICA Group acquires franchise strata business

Nick Hall

PICA Group, the nation’s largest strata manager has bolstered its portfolio this week, acquiring franchise business Ace Body Corporate.

The latest acquisition sees PICA obtain the franchisor rights to 118 nationally operating Ace franchised branches, bringing the group’s total strata services sector market share to 10 per cent.

Sydney-based PICA, which is owned by Irish financial services company Fexco and Japanese facilities management and engineering company Nippon Kanzai Co Ltd will now add Ace’s 60,000 lots to its existing network of 200,000 in Australia.

Greg Nash, managing director and CEO of PICA Group said the acquisition of Ace Body Corporate Management would strengthen the 15-strong portfolio of brands under the PICA umbrella.

“This acquisition will allow PICA Group to expand our range of property and strata management services nationally. Ace is a great strata brand with a great team of strata professionals. We are delighted to welcome the Ace team into the PICA Group family,” Nash said.

According to the Australian National Strata Data 2018 report, around nine per cent of Australians live in apartments, with the number expected to rise based on current property trends.

The acquisition of Melbourne-based Ace raises PICA’s Victorian market share to 10 per cent, up from three per cent, bolster the network’s already strong presence in NSW, QLD, SA, WA and NT.

Ace will retain its brand for the time being, however Nash suggested PICA was considering how it could ‘sensibly’ undertake a rebrand in order to maintain network conformity.

Stephen Raff, Ace Body Corporate Management CEO said the acquisition provided existing franchisees with an opportunity to leverage PICA’s system to improve stability and sustainability of operation.

“For our franchise operations, leveraging PICA Group’s strengths enables us to offer additional services such as facilities management, repairs and maintenance services, energy savings and sustainability initiatives such as NABERS for Apartment Building assessments, behind-the-door services and a more varied range of insurance products to almost 3.4 million residents,” Raff said.

“This includes utilising PICA Group’s newly developed Urbanise cloud-based software and services platform to automate administrative and operational functions to vastly improve the overall customer service experience.”