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They Don’t Care – How Financial Investors Extract Profits from Care Homes
A Study on Private Equity Investments in Care Homes in France, Germany and the UK
When looking at the sometimes detrimental effects of finance on the real economy, we cannot shy away from dealing with private equity funds. In a recent study, we have therefore analyzed the toolbox of these specialized financial market actors in the care sector. Our report looks at the care sector and more specifically at the role that private equity firms have played in it, as part of the „financialisation” of this vital area of our societies. This focused approach, looking at cases in France, Germany and the UK, shows financialisation as it hap-pens in the real world. The care sector seems to be the perfect investment target for private equity firms, and the investors they serve. Demand for care has grown rapidly and will continue to grow in response to ageing populations. It provides reliable income streams through public insurance schemes and taxpayer money. Care home chains’ real estate is an attractive asset for investors that can be re-packaged and sold to other investors.
Read the entire report on private equity in care here
Our report documents the growing activities of private equity firms in the three countries, and the problematic outcomes as private equity actors buy up care home groups and re-engineer them for profit. We looked at the largest private-equity owned care home groups and in all cases we found that private equity firms used a similar toolbox to reap profits:
- Private equity owners put little of their own money at risk, instead using a) „other people’s money” supplied by co-investors such as pension funds, and b) using unusually large amounts of debt to magnify their investments. Large parts of this debt is pushed down on the acquired companies, threatening the long-term viability of the care home group.
- Care home groups are often forced to serve “shareholder loans” with high interest rates. In some cases, this has contributed to care home groups becoming technically insolvent, as we show for the collapse of Southern Cross in the UK.
- Private equity firms acquire care home real estate and re-engineer real es-tate holdings. In all cases studied, care home groups have been stripped of their real estate, and were forced to rent them back (sale-lease-back).
- In all cases, profits of care home groups were transferred to parent holdings in offshore financial centres such as Luxembourg or Jersey.
Webseminar *in German*
We discussed the financialisation of care with investigative journalist Harald Schumann from the European journalist team Investigate Europe.
New Report on the Financialisation of DAX30 firms
Our report explores the role of shareholders for the priorities within large corporations in the German stock index DAX
Project Modules
The project consists of four main modules, which will be covered from 2020 until 2022. After starting off with analyses of three scenarios for progressive policy change, our current work is focussed on the role of central banks, the disconnect of finance and the real economy as well as the role of economic growth for the transformation.
Module: Scenario Analysis
Will future crises be induced by financial or climate-related events and how likely are they? We analyse potential causes of future crises.
Module: Central Banking
Central banks are the first line of defence during crises. What should be their role in the transformation and what could reform look like?
Module: Financialisation
Our systems’ short-term focus on financial returns is responsible for our vulnerability to crises. We want to find ways on how to reign in the financial sector.
Module: Growth & Transformation
What are the challenges of continuous low growth and interest rates for the social-ecological transformation?