If you have elderly relatives in a private care home, there is a good chance that Bill Colvin is the man ultimately looking after them. As chief executive of Southern Cross, his company has 37,000 beds under its control and is looking to buy more.

Southern Cross's sale and leaseback model might seem vulnerable in a property market hit by a credit crunch, but, as Mr Colvin points out, Britain has an ageing population and beds are going to be in demand. The average age of Southern Cross residents is 87.

Yesterday's announcement showed interim revenues up 28 per cent on last year and the company, which gets about 70 per cent of its revenues from local authorities, has negotiated weekly fee increases of 5 per cent for 85 per cent of its beds so far this year, beating analysts' expectations of between 4 and 4.5 per cent.

Mr Colvin is keen to expand the Ashbourne Senior Living brand, which is aimed at the higher end of the market. He has also embarked on an ambitious building programme throughout the UK and does not want to rely on acquiring other care homes businesses to grow.

However, he has confirmed that he is eying Craegmoor Healthcare, Britain's fifth-largest homes provider, which was put up for sale by the private equity unit of Legal & General last month. It is valued at £300 million and would add 4,300 beds.

Mr Colvin, who employs 41,000 people, is concerned about the Government's new rules on skilled migrant workers. A significant proportion of its employees are from outside the European Union and may be forced to leave under the new criteria. He said yesterday: “The Government has to realise that we've got a lot of fantastic workers who have families and mortgages and we want them to remain here.”

Mr Colvin's background is in the oil industry. He spent seven years as group finance director of British Borneo Oil & Gas during the 1990s. The accountant joined NHP in 2000 and became chief executive that year. When Southern Cross acquired the Highfield Group in March 2005, he was appointed non-executive chairman, seeing the company through its flotation before becoming chief executive at the start of 2008.

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