(Reuters) – The Ehpad Orpéa group, heavily in debt and shaken by accusations of failures in the care of residents, announced in a press release that the Nanterre commercial court had validated its accelerated safeguard plan on Monday.

This restructuring plan had been approved at the end of June by a majority for six of the ten classes of affected parties – for lack of a majority for all the classes. Orpéa then announced that it would ask the Nanterre commercial court to approve the plan by “forced application between classes”.

Included in the September 2021 reform of the law of companies in difficulty, this mechanism provides that a restructuring plan which is not validated by all classes of affected parties can nevertheless be approved by the judicial administrators and imposed on one or more dissenting classes.

Six classes had approved the draft accelerated safeguard plan by the required majority (more than 2/3), three others, including that of the shareholders, had supported the draft accelerated safeguard plan by more than 50% and the OCEANE class had voted 49.2% in favor of the plan (50.8% against).

This decision is an important step in the financial restructuring of the heavily indebted group, which has been in turmoil for more than a year amid accusations of failure to care for residents and financial embezzlement.

It should allow the implementation of an agreement signed in February with a group of investors led by the Caisse des dépôts et consignations (CDC), which will take control of the group, making the French state its main shareholder. The transaction will result in significant dilution for shareholders.

(Written by Augustin Turpin, Editing by Kate Entringer)

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