Ireland’s largest nursing home groups, mostly now in foreign ownership, racked up further losses last year as they continue to be hit by rising running and borrowing costs and an ongoing gap between Government funding for beds in private and public facilities.
Four of the five largest providers in the State are now French-owned, following a slew of takeover deals between 2017 and 2021, when interest rates on debt for deals were much lower. Each racked up losses between 2021 and 2023, according to accounts filed with the Companies Registration Office.
Emeis, the French nursing home group formerly known as Orpea that entered the Irish market in 2020 through the takeover of the TLC Nursing Home portfolio and followed up with further deals, reported a €70.2 million net loss last year, according to a report filed this week. That brought its accumulated losses over three years to more than €223 million.
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Emeis Ireland, the largest private operator in the sector, with 2,149 beds spread across 24 homes, attributed most of the losses to the writing down of goodwill associated with peak-of-market acquisitions.
Still, the company remained profitable at earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) level throughout the period. This was helped by the fact that, unlike several operators that entered the market in recent times, it owns most of its properties. Its French parent required a bailout last year, led by a state-owned investment firm, in the wake of a scandal over residents’ mistreatment in its home market.
A holding company over CareChoice, the third-largest player, which was bought by French investment firm InfraVia Capital Partners in 2017, posted a €14.9 million net loss last year, bringing its combined shortfall over three years to €42.2 million. It also had €283 million of mainly bank and group company loans at the end of 2023 — leaving it with €50.1 million more liabilities than assets.
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CareChoice, which has more than 1,550 beds spread across 15 homes, took aim at the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF), which runs the Fair Deal scheme that pays for much of the costs of residential care, leaving private operators “chronically underfunded” as public sector homes enjoy higher rates.
“While over the last few months, there has been some progress in relation to increases in fair deal rates granted to CareChoice by the NTPF, the reality remains that the current fair deal rates do not fund the cost of providing care and the historic cost of investing in the buildings which we own,” said chairman James Tolan in the financial statement, signed off in July, but filed last month.
There was a €640 per bed disparity between the average weekly public and private rate across the country as of last month, according to a recent report by accounting firm BDO Ireland and Nursing Homes Ireland. More than half of all nursing homes were not profitable last year, it said.
The parent company over Virtue, the fourth-largest operator, with more than 1,420 beds, posted a net loss of €96,467 last year, albeit down from an almost €5 million shortfall in 2022. The company’s performance has been cushioned by its home care services business. Last year’s loss was mainly down to a large tax charge.
French-based elderly care specialist Emera Group, which acquired 70 per cent of Virtue in 2020, began to explore a sale of its stake earlier this year.
French care home group DomusVi, the fifth main operator, made its entry in January 2021 by acquiring Trinity Care. Its Irish unit reported a €4.79 million loss last year, bringing losses for its first three years in the market to €11.9 million.
The only Irish-owned player among the top five, Mowlam Healthcare, controlled by Dublin-based Cardinal Capital Group, is an unlimited company and does not publish its results.
An Economic and Social Research Institute report published in January highlighted that 14 for-profit nursing home groups, mainly owned by foreign operators and private equity firms, are now responsible for 38 per cent of the almost 32,000 long-term residential care beds in the State.
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