Welltower has a management shuffle, and The Ensign Group expands its real estate ownership.
Well, first of all, Happy New Year. I am not sure if it is going to be all that happy, bumpy yes, happy, it will depend on your perspective. For the first act of the new Congress to upend their own ethics rules, and then to rescind what they just passed, well, one would think they have more important things to do. Perhaps they are waiting until January 20. Meanwhile, we are heading into a year of uncertainty as well, with the full impact of rising interest rates not felt yet, even though financing activity seemed to take a breather in December. The only big news was that at year-end The Ensign Group bought the real estate of 15 Wisconsin assisted living and memory care communities that it had operated under a lease, and that Welltower extended Tom DeRosa’s contract through April 2020 and eliminated the job of Chief Investment Officer, resulting in the departure of Scott Brinker….immediately. And the COO job is gone as well, also effective immediately. We are not sure what is up and whether this is just a little cleaning house of some senior people from the former regime, or something else is going on. We have a whole new year to find out.
