In April 2007, Ventas acquired approximately $2 billion in senior housing complexes formerly owned by Sunrise Senior Living.  The deal brought properties into the Ventas portfolio that rely on private-pay residents rather than their traditional subsidize model.  This acquisition relied on Ventas’ ability to use leveraged finance to acquire the properties and extinguish the short term debt almost a month later through a secondary stock offering.  While Ventas has room on its short-term credit line facilities, the question remains can it find equity or long term debt financing to be as acquisitive and opportunistic as it would like?

With the credit markets in check, both debt and equity financing are going to be in short supply, regardless of the underlying asset class.  Even with senior housing as its niche, Ventas is still far from immune from the current financial environment.

http://www.suntimes.com/business/roeder/1087809,CST-FIN-curious03.article