Health Care Industry Remains Unattractive to Lenders

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The health care industry continues to be held in low esteem by 84% of lenders responding to this quarter's Phoenix Lending Survey. It is the fourth, consecutive quarter the industry has led the list of least attractive industries to lenders.

The 86 lenders participating in the February survey echoed the attitudes of last quarter, when 85% said they would not lend to a health care concern. That 85% was the lowest grade any industry has ever received from lenders since the survey was begun in 1995.

"The prognosis for the health care industry remains grim," said E. Talbot Briddell, president of Phoenix Management Services, a Philadelphia-based turnaround management …