The groups of the group and the Caisse des Dépôts separated on an observation of failure while they are trying to find a solution on the future of the giant of retirement homes.
by Béatrice Jérôme
After the scandal of the mistreatment of its residents and the diversion of public money revealed by the gravediggers (Fayard, 2022), Victor Castanet’s book, Orpea struggles to stop her descent into financial hell. The group of private retirement homes is facing a wall of some 9.5 billion debts. A liabilities inherited from the management of former leaders, who have managed, for years, to thwart all the controls in order to borrow without limits, by artificially boosting the results and by exaggerating the value of the EHPAD and Distributed Clinics Parc Park In twenty-two countries.
At the head of the group, since July 2022, the new managing director, Laurent Guillot, lives with a sword of Damocles above his head: the risk of “lacking liquidity” to pay the 72,000 employees in the spring . Advised by the Rothschild bank, Mr. Guillot designed a recovery plan, unveiled on November 15, which consists in particular in converting shares 3.8 billion euros in debts.
The process is classic, but the amount is unprecedented by its magnitude in the annals of restructuring of large companies. It involves putting into circulation of new actions, which reduces the unit value of each title. The small carriers, holders of 40 % of the 64, 6 million shares Orpea, will be the first to suffer from this massive dilution. Many banks and financiers will lose a lot of change: they will receive an amount in stocks lower than the value of their claims.
“Deep model change”
In recent days, Mr. Guillot was confident in his ability to make them accept these sacrifices. Especially since he has known for weeks that the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC) is studying his participation in the group’s recapitalization. Within the institution of the rue de Lille, the idea of ”saving the orpea soldier” made his way-“with the consent of the government”, we slip within the supervisory board of the fund .
“The 270,000 residents of the EHPAD Orpea deserve the protection of the nation,” said Eric Lombard, the CDC director of CDC, on January 10. He envisaged before the deputies that the institution ensures “a quality of service which makes it possible to protect employees and residents. It is better than if we are looking for a race for profitability which harms people who are also fellow citizens” . Mr. Lombard, however, posted a condition set up at the arrival of the cash register: “If we enter the capital, we want control,” he declared in The newspaper> The newspaper> The newspaper> Sunday , on January 15, to impose a “deep change in model”, with “practices that offer a quality of services and care for the best level and a drop in margins”.
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