11th Dec 2006 07:06
Southern Cross Healthcare Grp PLC11 December 2006 Southern Cross Healthcare Group PLC Further Expansion of Bed Portfolio Management agreement with Alpha Care adds 197 beds Monday, 11 December 2006 - Southern Cross Healthcare Group PLC (LSE: SCHE)('Southern Cross' or the 'Company'), the UK's largest care home provider,announces today that it has entered into a management agreement with Alpha CareServices (UK) Limited ("Alpha") for the management of five elderly care homescontaining a total of 197 beds. Four of the homes are based in Norwich (a totalof 166 beds) and one home is in Durham (31 beds). As part of the managementagreement, Southern Cross has an option to acquire the shares of Alpha, whichholds the leasehold interest, business and trading assets of the five homes. Since successfully listing on the London Stock Exchange in July 2006, SouthernCross has added a total of 665 beds, 467 of which have been acquired and 198have been built from Southern Cross' own development pipeline. Commenting on today's announcement, Philip Scott, Chief Executive of SouthernCross, said: "The management of these five homes under the agreement with Alpha is wholly inline with our strategy to expand our portfolio through the addition of highquality properties that meet the growing demand for elderly care services. Weshall continue to grow our portfolio through both acquisitions and organicgrowth and are on track to exceed our target of adding 1,200 beds per annum in2007." Southern Cross also announced today its preliminary results for the year ended 1October 2006 (see separate press release). Enquiries: Southern Cross Healthcare Group PLC Tel: +44 (0)1325 351100Philip Scott, Chief ExecutiveGraham Sizer, Finance Director Financial Dynamics Tel: +44 (0)20 7831 3113David YatesDeborah Scott Notes to Editors 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 ahigh percentage 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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