(BFM Bourse) – The action of the manager of retirement homes Orpea shows a heavy fall on the Paris Stock Exchange while Mediapart and Investigate Europe revealed a new financial scandal.
The lull was short-lived for Orpea. In the turmoil since the publication of the investigative book “Les Fossoyeurs” at the end of January, a new financial scandal has tarnished the group’s already badly damaged reputation.
According to Mediapart and the collective of journalists Investigate Europe, the Luxembourg holding Lipany, created in 2007, has “accumulated 92 million in assets”, “mainly shares in many nursing homes and clinics managed by Orpea” in several European countries, including France, and “carried out dubious financial operations”.
Around 3:45 p.m., the Orpea title, which has fallen by 64% since its questioning in a book denouncing serious failures in its establishments, was still unscrewing by 20% to 26.91 euros, and is heading straight for its most low of August 2012. Its competitor Korian fell 5.56% while the Noble Age escaped the decline with a gain of 0.55% to 36.80 euros.
“Individual behavior” according to Orpea
Lipany belongs, according to Mediapart, to Roberto Tribuno, an accountant and tax adviser who was the boss of Orpea in Italy. This holding “makes almost no profit and has never distributed dividends”, its activities are “entirely financed by debt”, in a way “to say the least opaque”, says the investigative media.
In a brief statement sent to AFP, the management of Orpea indicated that it could not comment, “justice being seized”: the company recalls that it recently filed a complaint against X for misuse of corporate assets, at the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office (Hauts-de-Seine). Anxious to “shed light on the accusations against the group” since the publication of the book-investigation “Les Fossoyeurs” by Victor Castanet, the management says it has “detected potentially criminal facts, which call into question individual behavior”.
“First disciplinary measures”
Orpea also points out that it has taken “first disciplinary measures, several people having already left the company”. The group mentions by name the case of the former financial director Sébastien Mesnard, who according to Mediapart was in “close cooperation” with Lipany.
“Sébastien Mesnard no longer works for the company and no longer has access to his email,” management said in its press release. “We are continuing our investigations and we will take all the measures and sanctions that prove necessary”, she added, recalling that “these facts in no way concern the reception and care of residents”.
Under fire from critics since the publication at the end of January of the “Fossoyeurs”, Orpea is also the subject of an investigation opened in Nanterre, at the end of April, on suspicion of institutional mistreatment or financial offences. Other investigations have been underway since February, for “forgery and use of forgery and violation of labor legislation by abusively resorting to fixed-term contracts”.
Last week, the group indicated that it had provisioned 83 million euros in its 2021 accounts “for risks and charges relating to the risks estimated for the years 2017-2021 following administrative investigations”.
(With AFP)
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