When it rains, it pours in senior care M&A. First, we noticed a significant uptick in deal activity this month, with over 30 transactions announced since June 1st. Not December’s level of activity, but we’ll take it. Then, Harrison Street announced the largest purchase in the industry in two years, spending $1.2 billion on 24 Oakmont communities.
But yesterday, when we were still digesting the sale of former SNF giant Kindred Healthcare to LifePoint, Welltower made the biggest splash of all, buying Holiday Retirement’s owned portfolio of 86 independent living properties for $1.58 billion. Not only that, but Atria Senior Living will acquire the operating business of Holiday for an undisclosed amount. The deal ends Fortress Investment Group’s nearly 15-year ownership of Holiday, which it bought in 2006 for $6.6 billion, or nearly $190,000 per unit. That was back when Holiday had 300 properties, as opposed to around 240 now.
All we can say is that we are thrilled to have a plethora of transactions, large and small, to be writing about. And we have to give a nod to the lending market, which appears to have opened up enough to get deals moving along the transaction pipeline again. We will be covering the current lending environment in our webinar tomorrow and whether borrowers can still find good leverage at decent terms. We will have a panel of experts to discuss, and yours truly to moderate. Hope to see you there.
