Anglia Secure leaves retirement

ANGLIA Secure Homes yesterday announced its withdrawal from building retirement homes, five years after it last made a profit from the troubled industry, writes Tom Stevenson.

Anglia is changing its spots to a nursing home operator as part of a long-awaited financial restructuring that will see Nash Sells, the venture capital group, acquire at least 60 per cent of its shares.

The company's sheltered housing assets and debts will be ring- fenced in preparation for an orderly disposal to repay the banks. Anglia had negative net worth of pounds 6.5m at the September year-end.

In a complex deal, existing shareholders will be offered three new shares for every two already owned at 4.25p, compared with the 12p at which they were suspended yesterday.

The cash call will be followed by a subscription to the issue's underwriters of a further 47 million shares, bringing the total raised to pounds 3.4m. Finally, 270 million shares will be issued, mainly to Nash Sells, to buy interests in two nursing home companies.

The refinanced company, to be renamed Care UK, will have 400 million shares in issue, against 33 million now. Pro forma profits of the acquired businesses for the year to September 1993 were pounds 970,000 from sales of pounds 10.1m.

Peter Edmondson, chairman, will receive a pounds 157,000 pay-off for the termination of his three-year, pounds 100,000-a-year contract.

Anglia also announced a loss for the year to September of pounds 7.1m, compared with a pounds 15.5m loss in the previous year.

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