The shares of the managers of the Korian and Orpea retirement homes tumbled on the Paris Stock Exchange on Friday February 4, after the announcement of an ongoing investigation by the magazine “Cash Investigation” into private nursing homes. The presenter of the France 2 show, Elise Lucet, promised on Twitter “new revelations” at the end of the work carried out by his team “for more than a year” on this topic. The sector has already been upset by revelations, at the end of January, on suspicions of mistreatment in the establishments of the Orpea group.
After the announcement of this “Cash Investigation” investigation, Orpea shares fell by 12.18% to 33.81 euros, Friday around 2:10 p.m. Shares in the group had already tumbled around 60% after it was implicated in the book The Gravediggers, by journalist Victor Castanet. In particular, he describes the rationing of medical supplies and food in establishments with very high prices, chronic ill-treatment of residents, financial objectives imposed on departments closely controlled by headquarters. Accusations that the group refutes en bloc, without convincing the deputies of the Social Affairs Commission, who received them on Wednesday.
The Korian share plunged from 19.93% to 16.91 euros on Friday in the early afternoon. “Orpea’s announcements have obviously not been enough to restore hope to investors, and the announcement of a ‘Cash Investigation’ on the Ehpad completes to convince the marketsanalyzes the independent analyst firm AlphaValue. This issue is notorious for not being in the lace, it is normal for the market to react violently.”
The distribution of an issue of “Cash Investigation” on the McDonalds group, scheduled for mid-February and which “was being finalized”, has been rescheduled to allow the team to focus on the nursing home abuse scandal. We still do not know the release date of the survey on private nursing homes, which will be “proposed as soon as possible on France 2 in the first part of the evening”specifies the channel in a press release on Friday, February 4.
For its part, the Korian group has published the response it sent to “Cash Investigation” after receiving an interview request from its general manager.. “The communication department teams are discussing with you for over nine months now, never finding common ground on the practical arrangements for an interviewsays the manager of Ehpad.
The group’s boss, Sophie Boissard, is “ready to act on [cette] request” provided you have “a live and on-set interview (..) at the end of the broadcast of the report, to allow viewers to hear all his answers and to form their own idea”. Korian also asks for power “preview the elements of the report” that concern him, in order to “to be able to [y] provide all the necessary clarifications”.
The group also asks “Cash Investigation” to warn them “at once” if his investigation reveals “serious facts likely to endanger people” taking place in its establishments. Korian asserts that in the event of such a report, management would take “without waiting for all the necessary measures to protect residents, and seize the competent authorities”.