15th Aug 2006 07:01
Southern Cross Healthcare Grp PLC15 August 2006 Southern Cross Healthcare Group PLC Acquisition of 270 Beds -- Signing of a £200 million Lease Facility -- Tuesday, 15 August 2006, Southern Cross Healthcare Group PLC (LSE: SCHE) ('Southern Cross' or 'the Group'), the UK's largest care home provider, todayannounces that it has acquired 270 beds in four modern, purpose built homes tobe included under the Southern Cross brand, from United Health Plc for anenterprise value of £18m. In line with the Group's strategy for growth, the freehold interest will be soldto a landlord fund with Southern Cross executing a long lease for the operationof the care homes. The onward sale of the freeholds will mean that the Groupwill only pay a nominal consideration for the operating business. Theseadditional beds will increase the Southern Cross portfolio to 29,018 beds andsupport the Group's objective of acquiring 1,200 beds annually. In conjunction with this acquisition, Southern Cross also announces the signingof a £200 million acquisition facility available to the Group for ongoingtransactions. This facility will provide the capital for additional strategicacquisitions of well-located, high quality businesses, which will drivesubstantial future growth for Southern Cross. The four homes acquired intoday's announcement will be the first draw down from this facility. Commenting on the announcement, Philip Scott, Chief Executive of Southern Cross,said: "We are pleased to announce this transaction in line with our strategy ofacquiring high quality homes in locations where there is a growing demand forour services. These homes are well run businesses based in the North of Englandand will be integrated into Southern Cross' operational structure immediatelyand without any additional overheads." Enquiries: Southern Cross Healthcare Group PLC +44 (0)1325 351100Philip Scott, Chief ExecutiveGraham Sizer, Finance Director Financial Dynamics +44 (0)20 7831 3113David YatesDeborah Scott About Southern Cross Southern Cross is, in terms of number of beds, the largest UK provider of carehome services for the elderly and a major provider of specialist services forpeople with physical and/or learning disabilities. The Company's care homes forthe elderly operate under two distinct brands: Southern Cross Healthcare andAshbourne Senior Living. Both brands provide a range of social and personalcare services and nursing care services for elderly people with physicalfrailties and differing forms of dementia. The Company's specialist servicesoperate under the Active Care Partnerships brand and provide long-term careservices for people with physical and/or learning disabilities and for youngerpeople with complex forms of challenging behaviour. Southern Cross is focused on providing high quality care in well investedfacilities, seeking to be the home of choice in each local community in which itoperates. The Company provides care services for most of the local authoritiesin the UK which, together with the NHS, represent over circa 70% of theCompany's revenues. Its care home portfolio is largely purpose-built with a highpercentage of single occupancy rooms and rooms with ensuite bathrooms.Occupancy levels in its core elderly segment are consistently in excess of 90%. This announcement includes statements that are, or may deemed to be, "forwardlooking statements". These forward looking statements can be identified by theuse of forward looking terminology, including the terms "believes", "estimates","plans", "projects", "anticipates", "expects", "intends", "may", "will", or "should" or, in each case, their negative or other variations or comparableterminology. These forward looking statements include matters that are nothistorical facts and include statements regarding the Company's intentions,beliefs or current expectations concerning, among other things, the Company'sresults of operations, financial condition, liquidity, prospects, growth,strategies and the outlook on the care home industry. By their nature, forwardlooking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to futureevents and circumstances. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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