Ethema Health Corporation, has entered into a Letter of Intent (“LOI”) agreement to purchase all of the assets of Edgewater Revcovery Center, LLC (“ERC”) of Morehead Kentucky. The LOI includes the purchase of the operating company or its assets along with three real estate holding companies that own some of the properties that ERC operates its treatment centers in. Along with the signing of the LOI, the Company signed a management agreement with ERC to take over management of ERC effective Monday, July 15, 2024. It will be effective until the purchases of the companies are completed on January 31, 2025 whichever comes first. During the management period the company will do business as ARIA-Edgewater and will be renamed ARIA after the closing.
ERC operates primarily in the urban areas of Morehead in the east end of Kentucky and Paducah in the west end of Kentucky. Altogether, ERC has about 440 licensed beds across all of its locations and has another 66 beds available to come on-line in Paducah in Calendar 2024. The current census is approximately 170 clients and is expected to be around that level when the Company takes over management. The LOI and Management agreement are available in an 8-k filing filed July 12, 2024.
The real estate as part of the assets being purchased will allow Ethema to pursue a sale-leaseback transaction similar to the one completed in August 2024 on its West Palm Beach property. This strategy could generate healthy working capital for the Company without raising new equity. This strategy will not be deployed initially as there is sufficient financing available to the Company to complete the purchase.
This deal will easily help the Company reach its mandate to expand to 500 beds by the end of 2025. There are almost 600 beds available between Florida and Kentucky. This platform will allow the Company to focus on business development to build the census to the 500-person level.
The Kentucky operation primarily provides care to Medicaid insured clients. This will help the Company add this dimension to its in-network insurance strategy.
Mr. Shawn Leon, Company CEO reported, “to say that this opportunity is massive, is an understatement. This will propel us to the 500-bed target much sooner than we anticipated. We know this is big growth, but we will be sure to stick to our principles in developing this opportunity. We will focus on client safety and care first. Then we will focus on the best programming possible for the clients to ensure the best outcomes. Third, we will bring our well-honed operational skills and efficiencies to bear on the whole organization to ensure profitability and further growth. We are honored to have been chosen as the buyer to take over this much sought after opportunity and look forward to becoming the provider of choice in the state of Kentucky.”
Mr. Leon added, “our family commitment to this business has deepened with the conversion of our debt to equity this week. We look forward to bringing this company to the attention of many more investors with our plan to up-list and this announcement will help get us there faster. I want to thank all the great shareholders that support us and contact me often to encourage us to keep up the good work. I think this development is proof that we intend to keep doing that.”
