Beverly Enterprises Posts Loss for Fourth Quarter

Beverly Enterprises, a leading nursing home chain, Thursday reported a net loss for the final quarter of 1986 and its first decline in annual net income since 1977.

For the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, the company posted a net loss of $1.6 million on revenue of $526.4 million. During the same period a year earlier, Beverly reported net income of $18.1 million on revenue of $450.4 million.

Although fiscal year revenue at the Pasadena-based company increased 19% to $2 billion, net income fell to $44.9 million from $59.8 million a year earlier.

On New Year’s Eve, Beverly announced a restructuring plan to sell a major portion of its retirement living facilities as well as one-sixth of its durable medical equipment operation, which has $100 million in sales.

At that time, Beverly officials predicted that the company would break even for the fourth quarter as a result of writeoffs associated with the restructuring.

But the plan--which included the sale of long-term health facilities, the sale of about 15 of the company’s 89 durable medical equipment outlets and a reduction in Beverly annual acquisition program from 13,500 nursing home beds to between 3,000 and 5,000--failed to rescue the company from red ink for the quarter.

Beverly operates 1,125 long-term-care nursing homes containing about 122,000 beds.