Southern Cross Closing In Coventry and Warwickshire...

[dutchman]

Troubled care home provider Southern Cross is to close as landlords abandon the group.



The closure, exclusively revealed by Sky City editor Mark Kleinman on his blog, will mean the firm’s 752 care homes will revert to the landlords who own the group’s properties.

The group has nine places in Coventry and Warwickshire.

Shareholders appear to have lost their entire investment in Southern Cross, after the company struggled to pay rent on its homes across the UK.

Speaking on Sky News, Kleinman said the move provided “certainty for the firm’s 31,000 elderly residents”.

A number of landlords, who are also operators of care homes, have indicated they intend to take over the running or have found new operators for 250 out of the 752 homes and will start to transfer operations shortly.

Landlords of the other 502 homes are said to be finalising their plans.

Some may require operational management and back office support, Southern Cross said, but once the restructuring period is over it anticipates it will “cease to be an operator of homes”.

Shareholders will get nothing back, it added, with shares suspended on the Stock Exchange.

Chief executive Jamie Buchan said: “My objective, and that of my team, is to continue to provide excellent care to every resident and to manage the programme of transition professionally.

“All 44,000 staff can take pride from the significant operational turnaround and improvements in care delivery which have been achieved over the past two years.”