(AFP / LOIC VENANCE)
Orpea shareholders meeting at a general meeting approved the new board of directors on Friday, a few days after the entry of a new group into the capital of the private nursing home group which should help it regain financial balance.
The board of directors, which remains chaired by Guillaume Pepy (former boss of SNCF), includes among its new members the former special advisor to Emmanuel Macron Philippe Grangeon, the former general director of Gécina (real estate company) Méka Brunel or the deputy director of the Bayard group Sibylle Le Maire.
This reorganization occurs three days after Orpea came under the control of a group led by the Caisse des Dépôts, the financial arm of the State, and which also includes Maif, CNP Assurances and MACSF (mutual health professionals). They now hold 50.18% of the capital.
These shareholders arrived on the occasion of a capital increase of 1.16 billion euros, as part of the financial restructuring of the group which was sinking under a debt of 9 billion euros.
“For a year and a half, we have largely refounded Orpea in the urgency imposed by the three crises which hit the company”, declared during the general meeting the general director of the group Laurent Guillot, citing Covid 19, the “reputational” crisis linked to the publication of the investigative book Les Fossoyeurs in January 2022 and the “liquidity crisis”.
The arrival of these shareholders “opens a new chapter” which will make it possible to “accelerate the implementation of this refoundation”, he added. The company “now has a robust foundation”, he said, recognizing however that there was “still a lot to build”, all in “a sector that is running out of steam”.
Present in around twenty countries with nursing homes and specialized clinics, Orpea found itself in great financial difficulty after the publication of Victor Castanet’s Gravediggers.
This book revealed mistreatment of residents, financial irregularities and failings in human resources management under the former management, and provoked multiple debates on the care given to the elderly in our society.
The group and former leaders are the subject of legal proceedings. Former general manager Yves Le Masne and financial director Sébastien Mesnard, placed in pre-trial detention in June 2023, are still there to this day, according to the Nanterre prosecutor’s office requested by AFP.