• 60 Seconds with Swett: M&A Activity Tops 350 Deals in H1:25

    In the second quarter of 2025, there were 176 publicly announced transactions, a preliminary number that is almost certain to increase in the weeks ahead. That brings our total for the first half of the year to 355 deals, or 710 on an annualized basis. Considering we finished 2024 with 716 total deals, which was a record by far, we are in a good... Read More »
  • Bloom Exits South Carolina’s Seniors Housing Market

    Kandu Capital, LLC, and its operating company, Bloom Senior Living, collectively known as Bloom, sold its final seniors housing community in South Carolina. The company is seeking realignment as it exits the state after a decade-long presence in the region. The 129-unit independent living and memory care community, which is in Bluffton, sold for... Read More »
  • Improving Ohio SNF Sees Strong Price

    Ryan Saul of Senior Living Investment Brokerage secured a strong price for a skilled nursing facility in Cincinnati, Ohio. Built in 1965, the facility was originally licensed for 199 beds, but the decision was made to strategically reduce the beds to 167 to save on provider tax and improve the Medicaid rate.  The facility struggled for many... Read More »
  • Stacked Stone Ventures Makes Major SNF Acquisition

    Stacked Stone Ventures, a real estate investment firm founded by Kent Eikanas, has made a major acquisition in the skilled nursing sector, acquiring nine skilled nursing facilities for approximately $33 million, or $66,000 per bed, at a 13% cap rate. Stacked Stone bought the portfolio in a joint venture with Praxis Capital from a large... Read More »
  • Tremper Capital Group Announces Two Refinances

    Tremper Capital Group announced a couple of refinances at the end of the second quarter for seniors housing clients. The first was arranged on behalf of Kisco Senior Living for its 333-unit entrance-fee CCRC in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Built in 2004, the campus was acquired by Kisco as part of a larger CCRC deal in 2013, and since then it... Read More »
The Pennant Group Debut

The Pennant Group Debut

The Pennant Group is The Ensign Group’s latest spin off. If history repeats itself, the new company will succeed. It has been three weeks since The Pennant Group was spun out of The Ensign Group as a separate publicly traded company. This is not Ensign’s first rodeo when it comes to successful spin outs. Five years ago, it spun out the majority of its real estate assets (and mostly skilled nursing) into CareTrust REIT, which has been among the leaders in shareholder return among healthcare-oriented REITs.  As Ensign grew its senior living and home health and hospice business, management decided that shareholders would benefit from higher valuation multiples if these assets were spun... Read More »
Ensign Expands in Idaho

Ensign Expands in Idaho

The Ensign Group grew its Pacific Northwest portfolio with the purchase of a 119-bed skilled nursing facility in Rexburg, Idaho (near the Wyoming border). The facility provides speech, physical and occupational therapy, wound care and dialysis care in addition to traditional long-term care. Pennant Healthcare, Inc., Ensign’s portfolio company based in the Pacific Northwest, will take over operations. No purchase price was disclosed, but the deal included both the real estate and operations, continuing a strategy of Ensign to own more of the real estate in its portfolio. This is the company’s first Idaho deal this year, after it acquired three facilities and 244 total beds in the Gem... Read More »
Ensign Expands Again in Arizona

Ensign Expands Again in Arizona

Serial acquirer The Ensign Group just announced its 10th senior care acquisition of the year, and 20th since the start of 2018. Its latest target was a 100-bed skilled nursing facility in Surprise, Arizona. Newly built, the facility is the seventh added to Ensign’s Arizona portfolio since 2018 and its 31st overall health care property in the state. As usual for Ensign’s Arizona acquisitions, its affiliate Bandera Healthcare will take over operations at the facility. Ensign also acquired the real estate, furthering its goal to own more of the real estate in its portfolio. Read More »
Brookdale Activists Strike Again

Brookdale Activists Strike Again

We disclosed last week that activist investor Land & Buildings (L&B) had nominated Jay Flaherty, former CEO of HCP, Inc., and Jonathan Litt (founder of L&B) for board election at the 2019 annual meeting of Brookdale Senior Living. L&B has just sent an open letter to Brookdale shareholders providing more rationale for the election of these two candidates. Apparently, L&B hired Green Street Advisors to value Brookdale and its real estate assets, and to provide an opinion as to the feasibility of a PropCo/OpCo split of the company, something Litt has been pushing for quite a while now to enhance shareholder value. Not surprisingly, preliminarily they determined that... Read More »
(Most) Senior Care Provider Stocks Shine in H1:19

(Most) Senior Care Provider Stocks Shine in H1:19

[featured in the July issue of The SeniorCare Investor] With the overall stock market posting its best first half of a year since 1997, one would expect that seniors housing and care stocks would also have performed well. The major benchmarks are up 14% to 17% so far this year, and only two of the providers have topped that. Of the larger cap providers, The Ensign Group was the star with a 46.7% price increase in six months, and that was after jumping by 74.7% in calendar 2018. The company just keeps on rockin’, and when it splits into two separate operating companies later this year, one for skilled nursing and one for seniors housing and home health care, the expectation is that the... Read More »