It also owns The Huntercombe Group, a provider of inpatient mental healthcare and brain injury rehabilitation as well as care home operator brighterkind.

There followed a rapid expansion programme for the business, which transformed it within seven years into the largest care home operator in the UK (it was subsequently overtaken).

The acquisition was funded by debt which was readily available in a market where investors saw rising property prices and continuing demand for care for the elderly, much of it paid for by the public sector.

Peter Calveley was appointed CEO in 2007 and his senior management team were left to resolve debts of circa £1.5 billion as a result of borrowings by its owners to buy the homes.

The underlying bond debt was bought by H/2 Capital Partners which has investments in senior living or similar nursing homes in the United States.

[3] It later announced plans to close seven homes in Northern Ireland: Victoria Park and Stormont in Belfast; Antrim; Garvagh; Donaghcloney near Banbridge; Oakridge in Ballynahinch, County Down; Hamilton Court in Armagh.

[6] In September 2017 the Daily Telegraph reported that a legal mistake meant that bondholders had inadvertently already been given ownership of 71 private patients care homes and hence could not use them as security to raise extra money.

A High court hearing led by a major bondholder – the US hedge fund H/2 Capital Partners – was scheduled for April or June 2018 but the firm was unlikely to be able to restructure before then.

[7] The following month the company warned it could not meet a £26m payment due in December without restructuring and if this was delayed the bondholders could potentially seize its assets of 360 nursing homes.

A restructuring was planned for November and Four Seasons' owners would add 24 care homes in exchange for reduced and delayed repayments of 175m of bonds maturing in 2020.

[13] In June 2022 it appointed Christie's to oversee an auction of its core portfolio, not including the business in Northern Ireland, which consists of 111 sites across the UK.