PARIS (Reuters) – Searches were launched on Tuesday in “several dozen” nursing homes of the Orpea group in France as part of an open investigation into “institutional mistreatment”, the Nanterre prosecutor’s office told Reuters (Hauts-de-France). -Seine), confirming information from Mediapart.
The public prosecutor’s office has received around fifty complaints from families of residents of accommodation establishments for dependent elderly people, who denounce serious shortcomings in their care.
The group was implicated in a book by journalist Victor Castanet, published last January, in which he describes in particular a “rationing” of care and meals.
Orpea said in June that an independent audit had found evidence of malfunctions and wrongful behavior at some of its establishments, including inflated labor costs and suspicious third-party payments, but did not confirm all the accusations. formulated in the book. She dismissed allegations of widespread malfeasance.
“We are fully cooperating with the courts on all these matters,” chief executive Laurent Guillot told analysts on a conference call.
The searches took place as Orpea announced to investors on Tuesday that it would reduce its international activities and focus on its core business.
In October, the retirement home group warned of asset write-downs and said it had requested talks with its creditors.
The group, which has requested an amicable conciliation procedure to renegotiate its debt and announced write-downs, said it plans to convert 3.8 billion euros of unsecured debt into shares through a rights issue to existing shareholders.
Orpea also hopes to bring in 1.9 to 2.1 billion euros of new funding in the form of new guaranteed debt for a target amount of 600 million euros to cover its financing needs until the start of summer 2023, and a second capital increase.
With a gross debt of 9.53 billion euros at the end of September, Orpea says it expects that at the end of these operations, at least 20% of its capital will be held by long-term French institutional investors. .
The group is also targeting annual revenue growth of 9% by 2025, with an Ebitdar margin above 20% and an Ebitda of around 745 million euros in the same year.
(Report Alain Acco and Diana Mandiá, written by Sophie Louet, Myriam Rivet and Augustin Turpin, edited by Kate Entringer)