• WOW! Sonida Senior Living Goes BIG

    Sonida Senior Living just announced what can only be described as a transformational acquisition. Since new management came in, CEO Brandon Ribar and CFO Kevin Detz, Sonida has been on an upward path of improved operations and a balance sheet that has grown stronger. Occupancy has been increasing (87.7% in Q3) and NOI and EBITDA are rising. Spot... Read More »
  • 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 »
Five Star Not Shining

Five Star Not Shining

Hindsight is usually 20-20, and in the case of Five Star Senior Living, looking back two years, the company should have accepted the offer from Gemini Properties and the Thomas brothers of Senior Star, who offered to pay $325 million for 33 owned Five Star communities. They had already accumulated more than 6% of the company’s stock, an investment they most likely regret. But management, and really the then-controlling shareholder, the late Barry Portnoy, wanted nothing of it. In fact, Mr. Portnoy announced a tender offer to buy 10 million shares of Five Star at $3.00 per share to enhance his controlling position. That’s an investment where his estate would like a re-do. The Gemini/Senior... Read More »
Five Star and Senior Star… Again

Five Star and Senior Star… Again

Oh boy, here we go again. Bill and Bob Thomas have sent another letter to shareholders of Five Star Quality Care, of which they own about 3.4 million shares, or 6.8% of the company. As shareholders, they are glad that management realized that they had some valuable assets, the full value of which is not reflected in the share value. It rarely is. But, as we pointed out a few months ago when Five Star sold a few assets for a big price, and a big gain, with seven properties worth more than the market cap of the entire company, they are also subjecting themselves to a big lease payment liability, which will cut into cash flow. As shareholders, this is not making the Thomas brothers happy.... Read More »

Senior Star’s Five Star move

The Thomas Twins of Senior Star certainly had the right idea. Remember, they proposed buying all the owned properties of Five Star Senior Living for about $325 million, which we always assumed was an opening offer. Five Star has now agreed to sell just seven of its assisted living communities with 545 units to its REIT big brother, Senior Housing Properties Trust, in a sale/leaseback transaction. The price of $112.4 million comes to $206,200 per unit, and using that value (which we believe is high for the entire owned portfolio) on the remaining 26 owned properties with 2,666 units results in an additional $549 million in value. Five Star’s market cap, even after the nearly 40% jump in its... Read More »

Five Star Says No Deal

As expected, Five Star Quality Care has rejected the offer by an affiliate of Senior Star to purchase the 33 owned senior living communities for $325 million. Basically, the board said the assets are not for sale, and that the company could improve the value of the shares by improving earnings. Unfortunately, just improving earnings does not result in a higher stock value in this market. Just ask management at Capital Senior Living. So if someone will offer more for the owned real estate than what the entire company is worth, based on its current stock price, what would someone pay for the owned real estate and the operating company? That may be a question that Bill and Bob Thomas may try... Read More »

Seniors Housing Companies on the Defensive

Oh, what an end of the year. With just three publicly traded seniors housing companies, all three are under some sort of pressure to do something to increase shareholder value. First it was Brookdale Senior Living, then Capital Senior Living and now Five Star Quality Care. The owners of Senior Star have made an unsolicited offer to buy Five Star’s 33 owned communities with more than 3,100 units, with assisted living and memory care representing just over 75% of the total units and independent living the remainder. At a price of $325 million, or just over $100,000 per unit, the value to shareholders comes to more than $5.00 per share net of some mortgage debt. Five Star currently trades... Read More »