French care homes firm Orpea to resume markets trading and present new plan (updated)

Clariane SE

26/10/2022 06:09

* 
      Expects new asset impairments
    

        * 
      To present new plan on November 15
    

  
 (Adds detail and background)
       PARIS, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Care homes company Orpea
 ORP.PA , hit by accusations of malpractice at its French
retirement homes, said it would resume trading on financial
markets on Wednesday and unveil a new strategy next month.
    The news comes after France's market regulator AMF suspended
trading this week in the company's shares and bonds.
    In June, Orpea said an independent audit had found evidence
of financial wrongdoing, including inflated labour expenses and
suspiciously large payments to third parties, but did not
support all the accusations against it that appeared in "Les
Fossoyeurs" (the gravediggers), a book by independent journalist
Victor Castanet published earlier this year.
    Orpea said on Wednesday it would present a new strategy plan
on Nov. 15, and anticipated asset impairments as of Dec. 31 at
between 2.1 billion euros and 2.5 billion euros ($2.1
billion-$2.5 billion) before tax.
    "In order to ensure the implementation of the transformation
plan that I will present on November 15, in a challenging
macroeconomic context that has impacted operating performance as
well as the asset disposal program, and in view of the risk of
depreciation on certain assets, I have requested the opening of
an amicable conciliation procedure benefiting the ORPEA SA legal
entity," Orpea CEO Laurent Guillot said in a statement.
    ($1 = 1.0047 euros)
 (Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Muralikumar
Anantharaman and Krishna Chandra Eluri)
 ((sudip.kargupta@thomsonreuters.com; +33 1 49 49 53 84;))