Clariane (formerly korian): The European leader in retirement homes Clariane launches act 3 of its refinancing plan

(BFM Bourse) – The number one European retirement home launched a call to the market on Thursday intended to strengthen its financial structure.

While Alstom announced this Thursday that it had finalized its capital increase, launched two weeks ago, Clariane is only at the dawn of this process intended to strengthen its financial structure.

The former Korian announced this Thursday the launch of a capital increase amounting to approximately 237 million euros, via the issue of 213.59 million new shares at a price of 1.11 euros per title. This price reflects a discount of 65% compared to Wednesday’s closing price of 3.29 euros.

The capital increase maintains the preferential subscription right (DPS) for existing shareholders, which means that the group’s holders will be able to exercise this right to subscribe as a priority to the newly issued shares, and thus avoid being diluted.

Each shareholder will receive one DPS per share held and will have to exercise two DPS to subscribe to three new ones, according to the parity communicated by Clariane. Holders who do not wish to exercise their PSRs or only partially will be able to sell them, since the PSRs will be listed from June 14 to 26 on Euronext. After this date, the DPS value will be zero.

In terms of dilution, Clariane indicates, as an illustration, that a shareholder owning 1% of the group’s capital and not participating in the operation will see their participation reduced to 0.40%. The subscription period for new shares will extend from June 18 to June 18 inclusive.

On the Paris Stock Exchange, Clariane shares fell by 11% after the announcement of the launch of this capital increase which constitutes the third part of Clariane’s refinancing plan.

A global plan of 1.5 billion euros

Remember that the company was forced last November to announce a refinancing plan amounting to 1.5 billion euros intended to strengthen its financial structure. The goal was very clearly to avoid default for Clariane, which was also weakened by the negative fallout from the Orpea affair, but also by the violent rise in interest rates.

Following the completion of this capital increase, Clariane explains that it will have sufficient working capital to meet its obligations over the next 12 months from June 12. This fundraising comes a few days after the launch of a capital increase reserved for HLD Europe, Leima Valeurs and Flat Footed for a total amount of 92.1 million euros.

These two fundraisers fit together into a roadmap which is broken down into four parts. The company recalls that it completed, as of December 2023, the first two parts of this refinancing plan, namely two real estate partnerships with Crédit Agricole Assurances for an amount of 140 million euros and 90 million euros. euros.

The group also recalls that it has already completed to date approximately 40% of an asset sales program, which constitutes the fourth part of its refinancing program.

The goal is very clearly to start again on a healthy basis with a view to piloting its strategic plan “At your side”. As such, the company had revealed its medium-term objectives for the period 2023-2026. The number one European retirement home indicated at the end of May that it was aiming for average annual organic growth of around +5% over this period. The company also expects a gross operating margin (Ebitda) before an accounting standard to increase by 100 to 150 basis points (or from 1 point to 1.5 percentage points) still by 2026.

The company also hopes to reduce the debt leverage ratio to a level below 3 times Ebitda by the end of 2025. At the end of December 2023, it stood at 3.8 times and the group had net debt of 3.78 billion euros.

Sabrina Sadgui – ©2024 BFM Bourse