Two major companies make decisions, one with a path forward and the other still unclear, and they will be the talk of Dallas at the NIC conference.
As the senior care investing world descends on Dallas today for the Spring NIC conference, the giddy tone of the newcomers may be sobered by the recent events at Brookdale Senior Living and HCR ManorCare. Brookdale was the worse story, with its share price now down 80% from three years ago.
The announcement last week that HCR ManorCare will submit a pre-packaged bankruptcy filing and become a wholly-owned subsidiary of landlord Quality Care Properties was not a surprise, but just confirmed that the skilled nursing sector has a long struggle ahead. QCP is still moving forward with the sale of more than 50 ManorCare SNFs, but we hope that with the fight over, stability will return, and with it, a renewed focus on operations.
What QCP plans to do now that it will lose its REIT status is anyone’s guess, and we assume they will start to figure that out once they get access to ManorCare’s detailed financial data, something we believe they were not privy to during the protracted negotiations. You can read my take on all the above, and much more, in the March issue of The SeniorCare Investor, which should be released today. See you in the corridors.
