Care Enterprises Plans Offering to Retire Debt

Care Enterprises Inc. said it plans a public offering of 3.6 million shares of common stock to help retire some of its mounting debt. The Laguna Hills-based company, the nation’s fourth-largest nursing-home operator, hopes to raise as much as $24.8 million.

Included in the 3.6 million shares of Class A stock are 615,000 shares being sold by current shareholders. About 500,000 of those shares are being sold by Ted Nelson, who would retain 90,000 shares of the special class of stock. Nelson also owns about 22% of the firm’s Class B stock, but has not offered to sell them.

Class A shares each carry one-tenth of a vote while Class B shares each represent one vote.

Nelson resigned from Care’s board of directors last month to protest the company’s decision to reincorporate in Delaware with a new charter that he maintains is unfair to minority shareholders. The reincorporation was completed Tuesday.