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Four Seasons future up in the airCommunity Care Market News - Senior management at long term care provider Four Seasons Health Care is today (7 July) deep in disussion with advisor Hatfield Phillips following yesterday's deadline for a network of lenders to make it clear whether they will back a refinancing of the company. A spokesperson told CCMN that the company will spend the next day or so evaluating the opinions and demands from the many lenders who hold a stake in the £1.5bn debt upon which Four Seasons sits. They said that there is unlikely to be any official word from the group before tomorrow evening at the earliest. Rumours are circulating, however, that lenders have essentially voted against any last-ditch attempt to restructure, opting instead to follow through with a plan that would see Deutsche Bank head up a sale of the country's third largest residential care provider. At this stage mental health provider The Priory remains the favourite, thanks in the main part to the involvement of chief executive Philip Scott who played an instrumental role in building rival Southern Cross into the largest provider in the UK, and who has in the last six months or so made much of his desire to burst into the long term care market through a merger. Priory could face something of a battle though if Advent, the US backer of the specialist healthcare group Craegmoor, has anything to say. According to the news service Debtwire.com, junior lenders have been offered a 'generous allocation' of dept-for-equity in an effort to get them on board with a restructuring programme. However, despite strong day to day operations recent valuations have varied wildly from just £600m to £1.1bn meaning that any outcome will leave a number of former backers considerably out of pocket. Justin Merritt (07/07/2009)
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| Contact Justin
Merritt on justin@laingbuisson.co.uk Tel: 020 7841 0049 |