• Omega Invests in Saber Healthcare Joint Venture

    Omega Healthcare Investors released its third quarter earnings and made some news when it disclosed the acquisition of a 49% equity interest in a joint venture with Saber Healthcare. The JV will own and lease 64 skilled nursing facilities that were previously wholly owned by affiliates of Saber, which will retain a 51% equity interest in the JV... Read More »
  • Health Systems as Sellers in Three Transactions

    Cain Brothers advised on a trio of senior care transactions involving health systems as sellers, which could be a growing trend, particularly among any resource-constrained systems. Conversely, other systems may see the need to own skilled nursing beds in the future in order to control the transfer of their post-acute patients to SNFs and free up... Read More »
  • Large Ohio Operator Takes on Vacant SNF Beds

    Senwell Senior Investment Advisors facilitated the sale of 26 skilled nursing beds from a facility in Ohio and coordinated the repurposing of the real estate for future behavioral health services. The owners made the decision to close the facility after determining that the small size of the building prevented it from achieving the operational... Read More »
  • Not-For-Profits Secure Bond Financings

    Ziegler announced the successful pricing of $34.0 million Series 2025 bonds for The Chapel Hill Residential Retirement Center, Inc. d/b/a Carol Woods. Carol Woods is a North Carolina not-for-profit organization incorporated in July 1972 by a group of local citizens to develop, own and operate a CCRC in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Currently,... Read More »
  • Ventas Posts Healthy Q3 With Robust Acquisition Activity

    Among the earnings results trickling out this month, it will be impossible to overshadow Welltower’s announcement with $14 billion in new investment activity and another great quarter of seniors housing operating portfolio (SHOP) performance improvements. But Ventas reported healthy results, too, and some significant acquisition volume.  Ventas... Read More »
REITs Remained Active In May

REITs Remained Active In May

A couple of REITs announced transactions at the end of May: a small one in North Dakota and one large deal abroad. First, North Dakota-based Edgewood Real Estate Investment Trust announced it plans to acquire a financially distressed senior living community in the town of Dickinson (western North Dakota). The seller was First International Bank and Trust, which foreclosed on the community in 2015. Dickinson State University owns the land the community sits on, and will continue to do so. Edgewood will lease the community to its operating subsidiary, Edgewood Healthcare, upon closing. Then across the pond, Omega Healthcare Investors vastly increased its holdings in the United Kingdom,... Read More »

The REIT Price for Seniors Housing

Last week, we looked at the price REITs paid on average for skilled nursing facilities in 2016, according to the 22nd Edition of The Senior Care Acquisition Report, compared with other buyers in the industry. But what about in seniors housing? REITs have been far more active buyers in the space, with many of the private REITs getting involved in a sector with less stroke-of-the-pen risk (in fact, they bought five seniors housing properties to every one skilled nursing facility in 2016). Also, most of the revenue collected by assisted living or independent living communities comes from private payers, and REITs tend not to purchase those assisted living communities with significant, if any,... Read More »
What Do The REITs Know?

What Do The REITs Know?

When the Big Three healthcare REITs (Ventas, HCP and Welltower) largely divested their skilled nursing portfolios in the past few years, it prompted questions about the industry’s health. The exodus was kicked off in August 2015 by Ventas, which spun out most its skilled nursing/post-acute care portfolio into a separate REIT, Care Capital Properties (which just this month agreed to merge with Sabra Health Care REIT). Then, effective November 1, 2016, HCP followed suit, in a spin-off of its troubled HCR ManorCare assets (over 320 properties) into Quality Care Properties. Finally, after over a year of denying any such move, Welltower sold a 75% stake in 28 Genesis Healthcare-operated... Read More »

The Santa Stock Rally Is Stalling

We were supposed to see stocks rise this month, but so far the market is down as are seniors housing stocks. So what happened to the Santa rally? While we still have a few weeks to go before the end of the year, the markets have been sinking, and almost all seniors housing and care stocks have dropped, with Brookdale Senior Living falling the most, with a loss in value of 12% since November 30. It has now dropped below the psychologically important $20 threshold, and any bad news could add insult to injury. The others are closer to a mid-single-digit decline this month, but with one glaring exception. That is The Ensign Group, which is up just over 2% this month as it keeps chugging along... Read More »

The Senior Care Pricing Disconnect

The public equity market for senior care operating companies and REITs is getting slammed, but the private investment market remains strong. The pricing disconnect continues. Public equity investors continue to slam the senior care operating companies and health care REITs. All one has to do is look at what has happened to Kindred Healthcare and Genesis Health this past week or two, when both companies dropped to new lows and have not yet recovered. Fears of reimbursement pressure, fears of OIG investigations, fears of staffing costs. All have some degree of merit, but it seems like an overreaction to me. Just look at the private market, where both acquisition pricing and demand remain... Read More »