Mounting debts see UK’s largest care home operator put up for sale by US owners
One of the biggest care home operators in the country has been put up for sale by its American owners amid a mountain of debt.
Wilmslow based Four Seasons has been put on the market by its owner US Hedge fund H/2 Capital Partners.
Senior members of the management team have been ousted and replaced by Magaret Ford and Mark Ordan.
Ben Taberner, Claire Royston and Tim Hammond – Four Seasons’ finance chief, medical director and chief executive – have been removed from the board but remain in place to carry out day-to-day duties.
The move has thrown the future of the firm – which has 17,000 residents and 343 homes into serious doubt.
The imminent sale was announced after the firm, which is still nominally owned by Guy Hands’ private equity vehicle Terra Firma, failed to pay off a portion of its debt owed to H/2.
As principal creditor the American Hedge Fund has final say on the future of the business.
Four Seasons said: “These changes have been made in furtherance of an independent sales process and facilitate such a process taking place.
“A transparent arm’s length sales process for the sale of all or substantially all of the assets of the group” is under way.”
Four Season has been hit by cuts in local authority fees, risings costs and the introduction of the national living wage and has struggled for a number of years.
Four Seasons is saddled with £500m debts which are controlled by H/2 and other bondholders.
The company has insisted that there will be no impact on the day-to-day running of homes as a result of the sale.
