Four Seasons recovery hopes kept alive by £30m reprieve to keep running

Care home: Four Seasons has more than 340 facilities across the country

Michael Bow9 February 2018

Four Seasons, the care homes group, was on Friday handed a £30 million reprieve to keep operating after lender H/2 extended restructuring talks.

H/2, a US hedge fund, agreed to grant Four Seasons a cheaper £70 million term loan, replacing a more expensive £40 million facility that forced the care home to pay an interest rate of more than 6%.

The extra cash will be used to keep the firm’s 343 homes running while the two sides thrash out the future of the group.

A March deadline has also been replaced with a June one to settle the restructuring talks.

Four Seasons chairman Robbie Barr said: “We believe that this incremental liquidity and initial steps toward a revised governance structure lay the foundation for a consensual restructuring that benefits all stakeholders, and in particular provide continuity of care for our residents.”

H/2 possesses most of Four Seasons’ £525 million debt — giving it a claim to own the company.

But former owner Terra Firma says that it still owns a chunk of more profitable homes, delaying an agreement.