Despite the positive occupancy news coming out of seemingly every earnings announcement in May, buyers held back this month, announcing just 26 transactions. To be fair, that total beat’s February’s 25 publicly announced transactions (albeit being a 28-day month), and tied January. But it was off of March’s 29-deal tally and April, when a “whopping” 32 deals were announced.
We know that plenty of both buyers and sellers are waiting for a three- to six-month period of sustained occupancy and NOI growth before either risking the purchase or getting the desired price. But with a surge of deals closed at the end of April, we also thought a certain barrier had been broken and M&A would return to “normal.” We’re not dealing with the 15 or 16 deals per month of last summer, but we’re antsy for some action. Who can help it?
Deals that rose to the surface in the earnings announcements last month may also help overstate May’s activity, given many of those deals actually got done in the first quarter or in April. These are preliminary figures, and we will have more of a final analysis in the June issue of The SeniorCare Investor. But we could be in for some summer doldrums. Until the much-anticipated deal backlog comes to market…and closes.
