Ventas Inc. (VTR) arrived at an agreement with Kindred Healthcare Inc. (KND) for transitioning the operations of 9 post-acute facilities. The two companies have also inked deals for modification of certain master leases. The moves are expected to be accretive to the company’s bottom line.
Specifically, until the 9 facilities are transitioned to a new operator or vended by Ventas, Kindred will carry on paying full rent to Ventas, in addition to an escalation on May 1, 2015. Moreover, in particular cases, the obligation of Kindred to shell out rent on non-transitioned facilities would be lowered to 50% of the then current base rent after Jan 1, 2016.
The other deals included those which modified the master leases regarding 34 post-acute facilities which would remain subject to several master leases between the companies. Ventas would be reimbursed for some deferred capital expenses incurred at healthcare facilities that were earlier reassigned to new operators. As part of these deals, Kindred would pay a total of $40 million to Ventas.
As per Ventas’ estimates, the deals with Kindred as well as the re-leasing or sale of the nine assets, would, to some extent, be accretive to its normalized funds from operations (“FFO”) per share for 2015.
Recently, Ventas also moved a step closer to its merger with American Realty Capital Healthcare Trust Inc., with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) declaring the Form S-4 related to this merger as effective. The deal would add several medical office buildings and seniors housing assets to the company’s portfolio.
Going forward, we believe that strategic deals and acquisitions, along with the portfolio diversification and repositioning efforts, would help the company to capitalize on growth opportunities amid increasing healthcare spending, aging population and a rise in insured individuals in the U.S.
Ventas currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Other better-ranked REIT stocks include Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (HST) and Public Storage (PSA). Both stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Note: FFO, a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs, are obtained after adding depreciation, amortization and other non-cash expenses to net income.
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