Last Thursday Stuart Nicolson, the CEO of Becton Retirement Villages, learnt from his major bank funder, Suncorp, that giant US finance house Goldman Sachs had just bought his $74 million debt with Suncorp. Becton Retirement has six retirement villages and 1,000 ILUs under the control of its jointly owned Retirement Alliance venture with the Oman (Government) Investment Fund. The world’s largest investment bank, Goldman Sachs has now told Becton that it is interested in a longer term relationship.