-3x Short China Regulatory News (SCHE)

27 Feb 2007 07:01

Southern Cross Healthcare Grp PLC27 February 2007 Southern Cross Healthcare Group PLC Acquisition of Life Style Care Plc -- Portfolio expanded by a further 1,737 beds -- Tuesday, 27 February, 2007 - Southern Cross Healthcare Group PLC (LSE: SCHE)('Southern Cross' or the 'Company'), the UK's largest care home provider,announces today that it has acquired Life Style Care Plc ("Life Style"), asubsidiary of LSC Holdings Ltd. Life Style is an operating company which ownsthe leasehold interest of 23 high quality elderly care homes providing a totalof 1,737 beds, and with gross assets of £11.8 million(1). The majority of the homes acquired will be operated under the Ashbourne SeniorLiving brand and are located within Greater London, a strategically attractivearea of the UK in which Southern Cross has had a relatively small presence todate. Since the commencement of the current financial year, on 2 October 2006,Southern Cross has expanded its bed portfolio by 2,190 beds including thisacquisition, the Alpha acquisition announced in December and the opening ofseven new development projects. This significantly exceeds the Company'sannounced objective at flotation to add 1,200 beds to its portfolio each year. Furthermore, the 15 homes and 742 beds which were previously operated undermanagement contracts have now been assigned to the Group and, as a result, allbeds in the Group's portfolio are now revenue generating. In total, the Group now operates 611 homes and 31,107 beds. Commenting on today's announcement, Philip Scott, Chief Executive of SouthernCross, said: "We are pleased to announce the acquisition of Life Style which continues ourobjective of expanding our leasehold portfolio of modern, purpose designed, highquality homes. In keeping with our growth strategy, the 23 homes leaseholdinterest has been acquired for a nominal consideration. This acquisition ensuresthat we will exceed our portfolio growth target for the current financial yeareven before the inclusion of further beds from our expanding developmentpipeline." An analyst conference call to discuss today's announcement will be held at10.00am today, Tuesday 27th February 2007. Please contact Claire Rowell atFinancial Dynamics on 0207 269 7285 (claire.rowell@fd.com) for further details. Note 1: As of 31 March 2006 - ends - Enquiries: Southern Cross Healthcare Group PLC Tel: +44 (0)1325 351100Philip Scott, Chief ExecutiveGraham Sizer, Finance Director Financial Dynamics Tel: +44 (0)20 7831 3113David YatesDeborah Scott Notes to Editors About Southern Cross Southern Cross is, in terms of number of beds, the largest UK provider of carehome services for the elderly and a major provider of specialist services forpeople with physical and/or learning disabilities. The Company's care homes forthe elderly operate under two distinct brands: Southern Cross Healthcare andAshbourne Senior Living. Both brands provide a range of social and personalcare services and nursing care services for elderly people with physicalfrailties and differing forms of dementia. The Company's specialist servicesoperate under the Active Care Partnerships brand and provide long-term careservices for people with physical and/or learning disabilities and for youngerpeople with complex forms of challenging behaviour. Southern Cross is focused on providing high quality care in well investedfacilities, seeking to be the home of choice in each local community in which itoperates. The Company provides care services for most of the local authoritiesin the UK which, together with the NHS, represent over circa 70% of theCompany's revenues. Its care home portfolio is largely purpose-built with ahigh percentage of single occupancy rooms and rooms with ensuite bathrooms.Occupancy levels in its core elderly segment are consistently in excess of 90%. This announcement includes statements that are, or may deemed to be, "forwardlooking statements". These forward looking statements can be identified by theuse of forward looking terminology, including the terms "believes", "estimates","plans", "projects", "anticipates", "expects", "intends", "may", "will", or "should" or, in each case, their negative or other variations or comparableterminology. These forward looking statements include matters that are nothistorical facts and include statements regarding the Company's intentions,beliefs or current expectations concerning, among other things, the Company'sresults of operations, financial condition, liquidity, prospects, growth,strategies and the outlook on the care home industry. By their nature, forwardlooking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to futureevents and circumstances. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange