Ventas, Inc. (NYSE: VTR) (“Ventas” or the “Company”) reported last week that it has sold six underperforming skilled nursing facilities to its tenant, Kindred Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE: KND) (“Kindred”) for total cash consideration of $58 million, consisting of a $55.7 million purchase price and a $2.3 million lease termination fee. The six skilled nursing facilities contain 777 beds, equating to a total consideration of approximately $74,600 per bed with an annual rent on the six facilities is approximately $5.8 million. Kindred has stated that the sold skilled nursing facilities generated pretax losses to Kindred of approximately $3 million for the year ended December 31, 2008 and approximately $2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2009. Kindred has also stated that it intends to sell the facilities as soon as practicable and expects to generate proceeds of approximately $15 million to $20 million. Ventas expects to record a gain from the sale of $35 million in the second quarter.
“We are pleased to continue working with our important tenant Kindred to create value for both of our companies,” Ventas Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Debra A. Cafaro said.
Additionally, Fitch Ratings has upgraded the certain credit ratings of Ventas, Inc. and its subsidiaries Ventas Realty, Limited Partnership and Ventas Capital Corporation. The upgrades stem from Fitch’s view that Ventas’s liquidity, leverage, and unencumbered healthcare property operating metrics have improved to levels consistent with a ‘BBB’ rating following several capital markets transactions in a difficult market environment. Fitch upgraded the following for Ventas:
–Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ‘BBB’ from ‘BBB-‘;
–$867 million unsecured revolving credit facilities to ‘BBB’ from ‘BBB-‘;
–$1 billion senior unsecured notes to ‘BBB’ from ‘BBB-‘;
–$230 million senior unsecured convertible notes to ‘BBB’ from ‘BBB-‘.
For the full upgrade release by Fitch, click here.
