Sunrise Announces Eleventh Amendment to Bank Credit Facility
24 March 2009 - 8:36AM
PR Newswire (US)
Completes Sale of Greystone Subsidiaries MCLEAN, Va., March 23
/PRNewswire/ -- Sunrise Senior Living, Inc. (NYSE: SRZ) today
announced it has agreed with its lenders to an eleventh amendment
to its Bank Credit Facility, further waiving compliance with
certain financial covenants until April 30, 2009. The purpose of
this eleventh amendment is, among other things, to provide the
Company and its lenders with an additional period of time to
negotiate the terms of a twelfth amendment to the Company's Bank
Credit Facility that would comprehensively address any remaining
issues between the parties with respect to the Bank Credit Facility
through the current stated maturity date of December 2, 2009. The
common desired objective is to execute such twelfth amendment prior
to the close of business on April 30, 2009. "We are pleased that
our bank line group has extended us this additional time. We have
announced previously that we are working to reach negotiated
settlements with our lenders to preserve our liquidity," said Mark
Ordan, Sunrise's chief executive officer. "While the outcome of our
efforts remains uncertain, we believe this extension is very
beneficial to this process." The Company's Bank Credit Facility
contains various financial covenants and restrictions, including
provisions that require the Company to meet certain financial
tests. The eleventh amendment to the Bank Credit Facility suspends
the applicability of such covenants through April 29, 2009. Based
on revised cash flow forecasts as well as a result of the cash
proceeds from the March 18, 2009 sale of the Company's Greystone
subsidiary described below, Sunrise currently expects that its cash
balances and expected cash flow will be sufficient to operate the
Company and meet its obligations through April 30, 2009. However,
Sunrise does not expect to be in compliance with the financial
covenants in the Credit Agreement on April 30, 2009, which is the
day following the date on which the waiver of certain financial
covenants set forth in the Credit Agreement expires. As previously
disclosed, the Company is seeking to restructure its Bank Credit
Facility and is exploring other potential sources of capital with
other third parties. Additional financing resources will be
required to refinance existing indebtedness that comes due within
the next 12 months. Also as previously disclosed, the Company is in
the process of seeking waivers and discussing a comprehensive
restructuring plan with the lenders to its German communities, the
lender to the Fountains portfolio, the Company's venture partner in
the Fountains portfolio and certain other lenders. The Company
believes it is in the best interests of all of its creditors to
grant such waivers or reach negotiated settlements with Sunrise to
enable the Company to continue operating. However, there can be no
assurance that such waivers will be received or such settlements
will be reached. Today, the Company also announced that, on
Wednesday, March 18, 2009, it completed the sale of its Greystone
subsidiaries and related seed money investments in five CCRC
developments to two senior Greystone executives and other
investors. Sunrise had previously announced it was exploring
strategic options for Greystone and would no longer provide seed
capital due to poor bond financing markets. For further details on
this transaction, see the Company's Current Report on Form 8-K
filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on March 11,
2009. About Sunrise Senior Living Sunrise Senior Living, a McLean,
Va.-based company, employs approximately 40,000 people. As of
December 31, 2008, Sunrise operated 435 communities in the United
States, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom, with a combined
capacity for approximately 54,000 residents. Sunrise offers a full
range of personalized senior living services, including independent
living, assisted living, care for individuals with Alzheimer's and
other forms of memory loss, as well as nursing, rehabilitative and
hospice care. Sunrise's senior living services are delivered by
staff trained to encourage the independence, preserve the dignity,
enable freedom of choice and protect the privacy of residents. To
learn more about Sunrise, please visit
http://www.sunriseseniorliving.com/. Forward -Looking Statements
Certain matters discussed in this press release may be
forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although Sunrise believes
the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are
based on reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurances that
its expectations will be realized. Sunrise's actual results could
differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking
statements as a result of various factors, including, but not
limited to, changes in the Company's anticipated cash flow and
liquidity; the Company's ability to maintain adequate liquidity to
operate its business and execute its restructuring; the Company's
ability to obtain waivers, cure or reach agreements with respect to
defaults under the Company's loan, joint venture and construction
agreements; the Company's ability to negotiate a comprehensive
restructuring of the Company's obligations in respect of its
Germany communities, its Fountains portfolio and certain other of
its ventures; the Company's ability to obtain a covenant waiver or
further modification of its Bank Credit Facility; the Company's
ability to refinance its Bank Credit Facility and other debt due in
2009 and/or raise funds from other capital sources; the Company's
ability to achieve anticipated savings from the Company's cost
reduction program; the outcome of the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission's investigation; the outcomes of pending putative class
action and shareholders' derivative litigation; the outcome of the
Trinity investigation by the Office of the Inspector General of the
Department of Health and Human Services and qui tam lawsuit
relating to Trinity in which we are a defendant; the outcome of the
IRS audit of the Company's tax returns for the tax years ended
December 31, 2005, 2006 and 2007; the status and outcome of the
exploration of strategic alternatives; the Company's ability to
continue to recognize income from refinancings and sales of
communities by ventures; risk of changes in the Company's critical
accounting estimates; risk of further write-downs or impairments of
the Company's assets; risk of future obligations to fund of
guarantees and other support arrangements to some of the Company's
ventures, lenders to the ventures or third party owners; risk of
declining occupancies in existing communities or slower than
expected leasing of new communities; risk resulting from any
international expansion; development and construction risks; risks
associated with past or any future acquisitions; compliance with
government regulations; risk of new legislation or regulatory
developments; business conditions and market factors that could
affect the value of the Company's properties; competition and our
response to pricing and promotional activities of our competitors;
changes in interest rates; unanticipated expenses; the risks of
further downturns in general economic conditions including, but not
limited to, financial market performance, consumer credit
availability, interest rates, inflation, energy prices,
unemployment and consumer sentiment about the economy in general;
risks associated with the ownership and operation of assisted
living and independent living communities; and other risks detailed
in the Company's 2008 Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the
SEC, as may be amended or supplemented in the Company's Form 10-Q
filings or otherwise. The Company assumes no obligation to update
or supplement forward-looking statements that become untrue because
of subsequent events. DATASOURCE: Sunrise Senior Living, Inc.
CONTACT: Meghan Lublin, Investor Relations of Sunrise Senior
Living, Inc., +1-703-854-0299 Web Site:
http://www.sunriseseniorliving.com/
Copyright