CM Company News

Just three months after a takeover deal by Advent International which narrowly scraped the bottom of £1bn, the Priory Group has overseen the bolt on acquisition of the Craegmoor Group in a move which forms a new market leader in the mental health, elderly care and specialist education sector.

Specialist care provider Dimensions is stepping up its facility de-registration programme with the appointment of a director of service development who will take a lead on the project.

Domiciliary care provider City & County Healthcare Group, currently listed as the tenth largest provider in the UK, has boosted its presence with the acquisition of Careline Homecare for an undisclosed sum.

Emergency negotiations with banking partners held last month mean that Southern Cross healthcare has cut a deal which defers testing of its financial covenants to the end of this month. However, coming off the back of news that board chairman Ray Miles had jumped ship and the admission that executive committee member Mark Cash is being drafted in as support for chief executive Jamie Buchan, the waters are still not clear for the troubled provider.

CareTech Holdings has released a trading update prior to announcing its interim results for the six months ended 31 March 2011. During the first six months of the financial year, CareTech said that it increased capacity by 121 places to 1,930, with occupancy levels of approximately 92% in established services and around 87% including facilities being developed.

Homecare provider Sevacare (UK) Ltd has reported another year of strong growth with turnover up 43% to £7.4m (2009: £3m) and bottom line profits exceeding the £1m mark for the first time.

August Equity-owned Enara Group has announced a blast of significant growth with the bolt on acquisition of four homecare businesses based in the South of England.

East Anglian care home provider Healthcare Homes has announced plans to increase capacity at a trio of its sites under its ongoing refurbishment and improvement programme.

The latest edition of real estate broker Colliers International’s Care Homes Review claims that although average nominal weekly residential and nursing home fees have increased steadily over the last two years, real terms fee growth has weakened significantly in the last year.

Leeds city council has signed an agreement which means that social enterprise care scheme Care and Share Associates (CASA) will now be given the opportunity to bid for homecare contract tenders issued by the authority.