• 60 Seconds with Swett: October Smashes M&A Record

    We were predicting a record-breaking end to the year in terms of M&A activity, but we are not sure we expected a 100+ deal month, with 110 transactions and counting. Just to put that in perspective, the previous record for any month was 77 deals in October of last year, and only four months had previously broken the 70-deal barrier. So this... Read More »
  • Newmark Ends October with Portfolio Closings

    Newmark announced a flurry of transactions at the end of October involving various institutional firms. The largest was a portfolio of seniors housing communities in the Northeast known as “Stars and Stripes.” Word on the street is that the portfolio sold for north of $800 million, and that a sub-portfolio was valued at more than $1 million per... Read More »
  • Stacked Stone Acquires Missouri Portfolio

    Stacked Stone Ventures announced the purchase of a seven-community assisted living/memory care portfolio in Missouri for $71 million, or $212,600 per unit. Totaling 334 units and 405 beds, the Oak Pointe portfolio was developed between 2015 and 2020 by an investor group called ClearPath Senior Housing, which included Jeff Binder of Senior Living... Read More »
  • Blueprint Sells Georgia Community to LTC Properties

    LTC Properties divested seven skilled nursing facilities through two separate deals for $122 million in October. In those transaction announcements, the publicly traded REIT noted that it intended to redeploy proceeds for the acquisition of newer, stabilized SHOP assets. It looks like that’s what the publicly traded REIT did in Georgia at the... Read More »
  • MIG Announces Two Closings

    Montgomery Intermediary Group announced a couple of transactions at the end of October. First, Andrew Montgomery sold a 120-bed skilled nursing facility in southern Illinois in a value-add deal. Built in the 1960s and 1970s, the facility had a roughly 50% Medicaid census, with between 30% and 35% private pay and 5% to 10% Medicare. It was losing... Read More »
Capital Senior Living Continues to Shrink

Capital Senior Living Continues to Shrink

As many of you know, for several years we have been pressing Brookdale Senior Living to reduce its size further than what it has already accomplished. In the meantime, Capital Senior Living is getting smaller by the day, and while we understand why, we certainly hope Brookdale does not go down this somewhat extreme path in size (very doubtful). Cap Senior is now forecasting to be one-half the size it was two years ago, with 60 owned communities and eight managed. The leases will be gone.  During the course of the third quarter, like other operators, Capital Senior Living has been improving its capital structure, shedding unprofitable leases, handing properties over... Read More »
For Ventas, Welltower, Second Quarter Could Have Been Worse

For Ventas, Welltower, Second Quarter Could Have Been Worse

Second quarter earnings reports are not done yet, but the majority of the companies and REITs have reported. We were obviously not expecting a good quarter, but given the trend lines from March through June, the results could have been worse. In fact, for many companies it appears as if the worst is behind them. Or maybe it is better said that the bad news is getting less so. Let’s just say, the fat lady has not completed her song yet.  Before we get into some of the specifics of the two largest REITs, which happen to have the largest seniors housing operating portfolios, we do have some observations from the companies reporting. First, it appears that labor costs have declined for... Read More »
Capital Senior Living Returns 18 Properties to Fannie Mae

Capital Senior Living Returns 18 Properties to Fannie Mae

It’s been quite a week of earnings announcements from the publicly traded senior care companies, with Healthpeak Properties, Welltower, CareTrust REIT, Sabra Health Care REIT, Omega Healthcare Investors, Five Star Senior Living, Diversified Healthcare Trust and The Ensign Group all reporting. Capital Senior Living Corporation also came out with its second quarter results, and surprised some by revealing it was turning 18 properties in forbearance with Fannie Mae back to the agency lender. We have never heard of a company basically handing the keys over to Fannie Mae for that many communities. It is safe to say we are in unchartered territory that does not fail to surprise us, to say the... Read More »
Brookdale and Capital Senior Volatile

Brookdale and Capital Senior Volatile

During the course of this pandemic, the entire stock market has been extremely volatile. The quick 35% plunge was followed by a nearly as quick return, with the NASDAQ hitting new highs this week. This happened despite more than 40 million people recently hitting the unemployment lines.  This week, however, we saw volatility reaching new highs in the senior living sector. As an example, Brookdale Senior Living hit a near-term low of $2.66 per share on May 13. By June 5, it jumped by 64% to $4.37 per share. Maybe the turnaround was coming around. But by June 11 (just four trading days later), it plunged by 35% to $2.82 per share. After all that volatility, between May 13 and... Read More »
Capital Senior Living Reports, Again

Capital Senior Living Reports, Again

After Capital Senior Living filed an 8-K recently talking about “going concern” issues, we have to admit we were a little nervous about the delayed first quarter earnings release. Let’s just say, it could have been worse. They included the “going concern” clause, which basically says the current conditions raise “substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern for the 12-month period following the issuance of its financial statements” for the first quarter of 2020.   Well, after reading the financial statements, it seems like there is definitely room to “continue” for the next 12 months, given some of the steps it has taken. They will have... Read More »