(RPT codes)
PARIS, April 26 (Reuters) – The Orpea group, in turmoil since the end of January amid accusations of failings in the care of residents of its retirement homes, published on Tuesday the first results of independent external audits and announced the postponement of the presentation of its annual results.
In the wake of these announcements, the title Orpea yielded 2.24% in the middle of the morning on the Paris Stock Exchange, in a Parisian market up 0.53% at the same time.
“Faced with the exceptional circumstances currently being experienced by the company (..) Orpea has decided to postpone the publication of its annual accounts currently being audited to Friday May 13, 2022”, specifies the Ehpad group (accommodation establishment for people dependent elderly) private in a press release.
In the progress report on the external evaluation mission launched on February 1, published on Tuesday, the firms Grant Thornton and Alvarez & Marsal stress that their investigations “do not to date confirm the existence of a system leading to regular situations of shortages on the supply of protections or a rationing system on catering” nor that “of a system aimed at deliberately organizing a situation of understaffing in order to optimize the profits of the group” .
They specify, however, that their “preliminary findings” relating to the period 2019-2021, “subject to all the investigations remaining to be carried out to date”, have made it possible to “identify the existence of discounts, rebates and rebates granted including by suppliers of products financed with public funds, erroneous declarations of employment accounts to the supervisory authorities, non-compliance in the contractualization of fixed-term contracts and the use of intermediaries, including a former prefect”.
The government announced at the end of March that it had filed a complaint against Orpea to request the reimbursement of public grants, up to several tens of millions of euros, the use of which, according to it, would have been misappropriated.
Orpea also announced in its press release on Tuesday that the group would ask the commercial court for an extension of the deadline to hold its annual general meeting at the end of July 2022.
(Written by Myriam Rivet and Matthieu Protard, edited by Matthieu Protard and Kate Entringer)