Booty and his board are likely to try and clear the decks after a troubled 18 months during which Nestor has reported four profit warnings. The half-year dividend is also likely to be axed. The biggest write-off will be against the goodwill paid for Healthcall, the business which took it into GP out-of-hours services.
This could total as much as £50m. In the past five years Nestor’s share price has crashed from 600p to 96p.
A further £10m of write-offs could cover restructuring charges and redundancies. But Booty is expected to show that debts have been reduced and despite its difficulties the company still has strong cashflow.
The troubles at Nestor are just one of several shake-outs taking place in the health arena. This week bidders will submit indicative offers for Westminster Healthcare, a privately owned nursing-home group.
Potential buyers include Barchester Healthcare and Bupa. Blackstone, the private-equity group, is also interested and the eventual take-out price could be close to £450m.
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Blackstone and Allianz, the insurer, are also believed to be looking at NHP, the £515m quoted care-home group where NM Rothschild has been appointed to conduct an auction.