21st Aug 2007 07:00
Southern Cross Healthcare Grp PLC21 August 2007 Southern Cross Healthcare Group PLC Divestment of freehold interest and exercise of call option for a further 5 care homes, 284 beds -- Leasehold operating business retained for nominal consideration -- Tuesday, 21 August 2007 - Southern Cross Healthcare Group PLC (LSE: SCHE)('Southern Cross' or the 'Company'), the UK's largest care home provider,announces today that it has completed the divestment of the freehold interest ofnine care homes, originally acquired in May 2007, for £30m. In line with the Company's growth strategy, the amount raised by the sale of theproperty equates to the original enterprise value paid for the homes with theleasehold operating business retained by Southern Cross for a nominalconsideration. The Company also announces that it has today exercised a call option over afurther 5 homes (284 beds) from the same original vendor. The homes are locatedin Scotland, one of the Company's target growth areas. The acquisition willcomplete at the end of the month. On 7 June 2007 the Company announced the acquisition of 15 high quality carehomes from Avery Healthcare Limited ("Avery"). The Company has now completedthe internal restructuring of Avery into a leasehold operating business andproperty company and has commenced marketing of the property company. Commenting on today's announcement, Philip Scott, Chief Executive of SouthernCross, said: "The divestment of the freehold interest of these propertiesreinforces the strength of Southern Cross' covenant with landlords, whichenables us to acquire the underlying operating businesses for a nominalconsideration and thus create substantial shareholder value. With continuingsupport from new and existing landlords for these transactions, we remain verypositive about the ongoing growth opportunities for Southern Cross." - ends - Enquiries: Southern Cross Healthcare Group PLC Tel: +44 (0)1325 351100 Philip Scott, Chief Executive Graham Sizer, Finance Director Financial Dynamics Tel: +44 (0)20 7831 3113 David Yates Deborah 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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