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Southern Cross Healthcare Group PLC

New Horizons Update Presentation

Friday 26 February 2010 - Southern Cross Healthcare Group PLC (LSE: SCHE) ('Southern Cross' or the 'Company'), the UK's largest care home operator, announces that it will be hosting a 'New Horizons' update presentation for analysts and investors today at the offices of Financial Dynamics, Holborn Gate, 26 Southampton Buildings, London WC2A 1PB, commencing at 10.30am.

At today's presentation Southern Cross will focus on a number of targets it expects to achieve by the end of 2011. The Company:

·; has increased its target for the number of care homes rated good or excellent by the CQC from 80% to 85% following the significant progress already made in improving its quality of care ratings over the past nine months

·; is targeting an increase in the proportion of its self-pay residents from 18% to 22%

·; is aiming to reduce the level of staff turnover to industry leading standards

·; reiterates its target of improving its operating margin run rate by 2% (provided that cost inflation is matched by increases in fee rates)

Jamie Buchan, Chief Executive of Southern Cross, commented:

"Today we set ourselves some ambitious targets for the medium term, which we believe help to align the interests of our residents, employees and shareholders. Our aim is to improve the quality of our homes, work environment and operating margin to deliver additional shareholder value."

Please call Juliet Edwards at Financial Dynamics to register as an attendee and for further details on +44(0)20 7269 7125 or email her at Juliet.edwards@fd.com. The presentation can be downloaded from the Southern Cross website http://www.schealthcare.co.uk/

Enquiries:

About Southern Cross

Southern Cross is, in terms of number of beds, the largest UK provider of care home services for the elderly and a major provider of specialist services for people with physical and/or learning disabilities. The Group's care homes for the elderly operate under two distinct brands: Southern Cross Healthcare and Ashbourne Senior Living. Both brands provide a range of social and personal care services and nursing care services for elderly people with physical frailties and differing forms of dementia. The Group's specialist services operate under the Active Care Partnerships brand and provide long-term care services for people with physical and/or learning disabilities and for younger people with complex forms of challenging behaviour.

Southern Cross is focused on providing high quality care in well invested facilities, seeking to be the home of choice in each local community in which it operates. The Group provides care services for most of the local authorities in the UK which, together with the NHS, represent circa 77% of the Group's revenues. Its care home portfolio is largely purpose-built with a high percentage of single occupancy rooms and rooms with ensuite bathrooms.

This announcement includes statements that are, or may deemed to be, "forward looking statements". These forward looking statements can be identified by the use 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 comparable terminology. These forward looking statements include matters that are not historical facts and include statements regarding the Group's intentions, beliefs or current expectations concerning, among other things, the Group's results of operations, financial condition, liquidity, prospects, growth, strategies and the outlook on the care home industry. By their nature, forward looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to future events and circumstances.