Health-care lender to keep operating

COLUMBUS (AP) -- National Century Financial Enterprises will keep operating for about a year as it tries to pay off creditors, delaying a plan to cease operations and sell what's left of the company early this year, company officials said.
The bankrupt health-care lender had received two formal offers for its accounts receivable in recent months.
Creditors would be unlikely to approve any sale, said acting chief executive David Coles, a restructuring expert brought in from the New York firm of Alvarez & amp; Marsal Inc.
The company can recover about $600 million -- still less than it owes its creditors -- from the bankruptcies of its former customers and other sources, Coles said.
"After five months, we're in a pretty good position to know what we're going to raise," he said.
Before filing for federal Chapter 11 bankruptcy Nov. 18, National Century, based in suburban Dublin, was the nation's largest provider of financing to health-care providers, with 100 clients.