Bedell Cristin advises on sale of Jersey care home

Bedell Cristin has acted on behalf of The Little Sisters of the Poor in relation to the sale of its Jersey care home, Jeanne Jugan Residence.

The sale of the home, which has been operated in Jersey for over 130 years, represented a highly complex transaction that encompassed the sale of both the property and the care home and the novation of contracts for residents and employees.

Bedell Cristin’s team, led by partners Nancy Chien and Guy Westmacott, advised on the bidding process, commercial contracts and transactional advice as well as providing regulatory advice on company, charity and care home legislation.

Throughout the process it was vital that the care home continued to operate so Bedell Cristin acted to sell the Jeanne Jugan Residence as a going concern and successfully novated the contracts of approximately 80 residents and 120 employees as part of the transaction.

Also on the Bedell Cristin team were partners Jeff O'Boyle and Edward Drummond, senior associate Sonia Minns and associates Craig Geraghty, Hannah Robinson and Kirsten Brass.

Bedell Cristin adopted a highly collaborative approach to the transaction with work spanning its trust and private client, property, litigation, corporate and commercial and regulatory teams to achieve a successful conclusion to the deal.

On the involvement of Bedell Cristin, Nancy Chien commented: "The Sisters have been operating at Jeanne Jugan Residence for over 130 years and the sale of the care home represents the Sisters' departure from the island. Understandably, the sale meant a lot to the Sisters and it was extremely important to them that the residents and staff would be looked after as part of the sale. We are very pleased to have been able to assist them with the transaction and to achieve the outcome they were looking for.

We have, once again, demonstrated our depth of experience across all aspects of Jersey law - spanning corporate, property, employment and charity law matters - and our ability to provide pragmatic commercial advice. This was a complex case and the whole team worked together brilliantly to bring about a successful outcome for the client."