• 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 »
Going Concern Problems at Capital Senior Living

Going Concern Problems at Capital Senior Living

Late last Friday, Capital Senior Living announced that it expects to disclose its first quarter earnings results before the market opens on May 21, and then hold its conference call with analysts. It will not be pretty.  Also late Friday, the company filed an 8-K with the SEC stating that the coronavirus was taking its toll, and we quote: “The sudden onset of COVID-19 has had a significant adverse impact on occupancy levels, revenues, expenses and operating results at our communities. Although we are unable to predict the full nature and extent of the impact of COVID-19 at this time, we expect COVID-19 will continue to have a significant adverse effect on our business, financial... Read More »
Capital Senior Living Files Registration Statement

Capital Senior Living Files Registration Statement

At the end of last week, Capital Senior Living filed an S-3 registration statement for the issuance of up to $150 million in various securities. And when we say “various,” we mean it. It could be common stock, preferred stock, senior debt, subordinated debt, depositary shares, warrants, rights, units, purchase contracts…you name it. What we don’t know is if this was just a formality, with this shelf registration statement replacing an old one that was expiring. If so, no big deal. If not, and if they might issue new debt, stock or other securities, that could be a troublesome sign.  After their fourth quarter earnings call, we felt a little better about their prospects, with... Read More »
Capital Senior Living Finally Reports

Capital Senior Living Finally Reports

After a two-week delay, Capital Senior Living reports fourth quarter results, and a little of first quarter. After delaying its fourth quarter earnings release by two weeks, Capital Senior Living finally produced the results. And they were not as bad as we expected. Phew. To be honest, I was thinking it could be so bad that bankruptcy would be floated as an option. Not this quarter. The bottom line is that the fourth quarter was not good, with same-community year-over-year occupancy declining by 290 basis points to 81.4%, and the operating margin falling by 600 basis points to 29%. Both are very large drops in a 12-month time frame. And both are worse than their peer group. The good news... Read More »
Genesis HealthCare Sees Share Value Rebound

Genesis HealthCare Sees Share Value Rebound

It’s no surprise that Genesis HealthCare has seen a significant drop in its share value as a result of Covid-19. The company owns and operates facilities that care for a medically-complex population that is most vulnerable to the virus, which is a huge risk in itself. The horrifying situation at a Life Care Centers facility in Kirkland, Washington, where 129 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed (81 residents, 34 staff members and 14 visitors) and 35 people have died (more than half of the state’s total), has also colored the image of SNFs in this situation, probably contributing to the flight of capital from the sector’s stocks.   During the massive... Read More »
Collapse of Brookdale and Capital Senior Living Continues

Collapse of Brookdale and Capital Senior Living Continues

We are officially in unchartered territory. It is now quite embarrassing that we stated two years ago, as Brookdale Senior Living’s share price dropped below $10, that it had reached a floor. Yes, hindsight is 20/20, but we don’t know anyone who really predicted how drastic it has actually become for senior living stocks. The question is, what to do now? The second question is, will it get worse?  The day-to-day volatility in the stock markets is unprecedented. The day-to-day declines in values in our sector are even more unprecedented. It seems that when the major indices drop by 10%, our sector, including the REITs, drops by 20%. It is a magnification of the worries brought on by the... Read More »