CM Company News

Healthcare IT provider Coldharbour has signed a major deal with the not-for-profit older people’s charity and national homecare provider WRVS, in a move which sales director Mike Morton told CCMN will be the first of many deals the company is hoping to sign with third sector providers.

Priory Group has recorded positive results for the three months ended 31 March 2011, a period which has seen then bed down with new owners Advent International and carry out a major merger with former mental health rival Craegmoor.

Allied Healthcare, the domiciliary care market leader, has acquired the entire issued share capital of homecare provider BiJu for £1.6m. A consideration of £1.28m was paid on completion of the transaction and was funded through Allied’s cash on hand. An additional consideration of £320,000 could be payable after 12 months depending on the level of gross profit generated in the business during that period.

Despite suggestions that the lack of government investment and a severe shrinking of local authority spending plans could have a significant impact on new extra care building programmes, social landlord Housing 21 has opened three new extra care sites and announced plans for a specialist dementia care unit in month which sees the charitable operator significantly step up an already rampant appetite to expand its presence.

Fresh from a corporate revamp (CCMN May 2011) elderly care provider Methodist Homes (formerly the MHA Care Group) has announced that both the opening of new homes and extension programmes at existing sites will help fuel expansion of the group. Two homes in Rotherham have been added to the provider’s portfolio: the 44-bed Beeches and 52-bed Sandygate, both of which provide standard residential care as well as specialist dementia-related support. The facilities were previously run on a leasehold basis from landlord WH Estates Group by an unnamed care provider which was taken into administration at the end of 2010. Acting on the instruction of administrators FRP Advisory, HPC marketed the properties with MHA securing them after a now-typically lengthy Care Quality Commission (CQC) registration process.

Mears Group has released an interim management statement for the period from January 1 to May 16 2011 showing that it has picked up £120m worth of new contracts since March, including several new domiciliary care contracts, ranging from two to five years in duration, with an estimated total value of £37m. In addition, it has inked a £4m three year contract with Gloucestershire county council’s Home Improvement Agency.

Publication of the last six month financials of an independent care home provider do not normally lead to a national media feeding frenzy. However, most companies are not the largest residential care provider in the UK with responsibility for 31,000 residents, are not reporting massive losses of £311m and nor are they admitting that there is no guarantee of success’ against the threat of being forced into administration.

South Wales care group Kaippans Care has become the latest small sized residential care provider to call in the administrators after it was announced last month that the three homes which make up its portfolio will be sold as going concerns.

Domiciliary care provider Carewatch has brought a further three of its franchisees in-house, taking the number of bolt-on investments funded by equity backer Lyceum Capital to 19. The acquisitions include Carewatch Greenwich and Carewatch North and East Riding as well as one of the group’s largest operations Graham Home Care which has 850 clients and delivers in the region of 13,500 hours of care each week.

The Adjustment Bureau