Boca Raton-based Promise Healthcare Group plans to sell off hospitals

Boca Raton-based Promise Healthcare has asked a bankruptcy court to allow it to sell or auction its hospitals, the latest move for the financially strapped group that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year.

Promise, a post-acute care hospital and nursing home chain operating facilities across nine states, filed for bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware in early November. At the time, officials said the company had debt exceeding $565 million, plus accrued and unpaid interest of $110 million.

In its Jan. 1 filing, the company requested an auction date of Feb. 20.

It said it already began marketing many of its assets with the help of the consulting firm Houlihan Lokey. Previously, Promise has said it plans to sell its Silver Lake Medical Center in Los Angeles, saying it had a nearly $85 million stalking-horse from L.A. Downtown Medical Center LLC.

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It also has filed motions with the court to allow it to sell a San Diego rehab facility to National Health Investors Inc. for $15 million and a St. Louis-based hospital to Americore Holdings LLC for $10 million. Unsecured creditors of Promise had asked the court to reject at least one of those sale requests, saying they believe an auction would help them recoup more of their losses.

On Wednesday, Justice Department officials filed for an emergency stay on the proceedings in light of the government shutdown saying "absent an appropriation, Department of Justice attorneys are prohibited from working, even on a voluntary basis."