Serious financial problems and a reputation to rebuild.

Orpea, the group of private nursing homes (Ehpad) in turmoil tried on Tuesday to convince that it can raise the bar, and clean up its practices and finances.

New human resources policy, better support for residents and redesigned financial strategy without giving up margins: a plan aims to get the company of 71,000 employees back on track, including 26,000 in France.

These three fields were at the heart of the detailed denunciations of the investigative book

Les Fossoyeurs

, published in January by journalist Victor Castanet.

The group which manages more than 350 establishments in France for dependent elderly people has since been the subject of an investigation for institutional mistreatment and financial offences.

Orpea intends in particular to “retain” its employees by investing in continuous training and internal promotion, for “better quality and safety of care”, according to a press release published on Tuesday.

"Orpea has moved away from its core business, favoring too rapid international and real estate development, at the cost of excessive indebtedness and a very fragile financial situation", commented Laurent Guillot, who became CEO of Orpea. in July after the scandal and the departure of the previous team.

In total, around 30 executives were fired for "unethical" behavior, he said.

The risk of lack of liquidity

This transformation plan should enable the group to achieve 9% annual growth in turnover by 2025 and a margin of more than 20% in 2025 compared to 17% today and 25% in 2021.

There remains a major financial obstacle to creating this "new Orpea": the group risks running out of cash "during the first half of 2023" and is beset by a massive debt of 9.5 billion euros.

To be able to implement its plan, Orpea opens negotiations with its creditors on Tuesday as part of a conciliation procedure before the Nanterre commercial court.

This is the second procedure of this kind initiated by the group this year.



On the employee side, the unions "have the feeling that (the new management) is listening", Dominique Chave, secretary general of the Federal Union of Private Health CGT, told AFP on Monday.

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