Outlook: No love lost in Care First row
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Your support makes all the difference.Broken promises, power struggles and betrayal. Who would have expected such things from a dear old nursing home company? But there is undoubtedly a hum-dinger of a row going at Care First, the UK's biggest nursing home operator.
The story is starting to look remarkably similar to last year's Eurotherm saga which ended with institutional shareholders ousting the incumbent chairman and reinstating its chief executive Claes Hultman. Like him, Chai Patel, Care First's chief executive quit after a power struggle with a chairman who can't let go of the reins. Like him, Mr Patel wants to come back and has the support of a number of shareholders who say he is the best thing since sliced bread.
As if that were not enough, Mr Patel seems to have the support of a large number of customers too, some of who say he has vision and an unequalled understanding of a particularly tough industry. And to top it all, he even has a reasonable level of support on the board.
The genesis of this row is last year's merger between Mr Patel's Court Cavendish and Keith Bradshaw's Takare to form the Care First combine.
Court Cavendish was always probably the better company but it was not the biggest and it was never likely that Mr Bradshaw would yield the controls without a fight. In the end the two found it impossible to live together and as often happens in life, it was the better of the two that lost out.
However the tide may be turning. Mr Bradshaw is looking increasingly isolated. Though he seems to have the support of the non-executive directors, some senior executives are threatening to leave. Promising to surrender his executive powers after a suitable alternative chief executive is found is no longer enough to satisfy those shareholders who want to see the back of him. It might have worked at an earlier stage but it is too late for that now.
Mr Bradshaw continues to insist that the majority of shareholders support him. Many don't believe him. The moment must have come for the matter to be put to the vote.
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