Four Seasons' re-financing failure will hit those in the autumn of their life

When debt was aplenty, private equity piled into care homes. Now, bankruptcy looms. Helen Power and Ben Bland report Twelve days ago, the senior management of Britain's second biggest care home operator, Four Seasons Healthcare UK, received the news they had been dreading. The nursing home giant's finance director Nick Mitchell e-mailed chief executive Dr Peter Calveley and other senior managers to say emergency rescue talks between Four Seasons' owner, a Qatari sovereign wealth fund, and its main lenders, including Royal Bank of Scotland, had completely broken down. And Four Seasons is not the only operator in trouble in the nursing home and disabled residential care sector. The businesses - many of them private equity-owned - which look after some of Britain's most vulnerable people, are struggling in the face of the credit... [read full story]