2015 proved to be a record-setting year for seniors housing and care transactions.
Last year, there were 354 publicly announced acquisitions, which is 17% higher than the number of publicly announced acquisitions in 2014, according to “The Health Care M&A Report” from Irving Levin Associates.
Last year was also the second straight year with more than 500 deals, Beth Mace, chief economist and director of capital markets outreach at the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care, noted during a recent Senior Housing News webinar on the financing and investment outlook for 2016.
Compared with 2014, last year didn’t see as many deals worth over $500 million, Mace said. Of the deals in 2015, 111 were portfolio deals, which is also down from the previous year.
“You’re not finding as many quality portfolios in 2015,” added S. Scott Stewart, founder and managing partner of Capitol Seniors Housing, during the webinar.
Still, there were 105 publicly announced acquisitions in the seniors housing and care M&A market in the fourth quarter of 2015, an all-time record for fourth-quarter activity.
By comparison, there were 88 transactions in the fourth quarter of 2014, the report says. A total of 100 transactions were recorded in the third quarter of 2015.
Meanwhile, the dollar value of the 354 transactions in 2015—$13.97 billion—was much lower than the $25.5 billion recorded in 2014. The total dollar value of the M&A transactions in the fourth quarter of 2015 was $2.2 billion, compared with $8.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014.
“The year 2015 will go down as the year of the small deal, as the billion-dollar deals of the past have all but disappeared,” Steve Monroe, editor of The SeniorCare Investor, said in a prepared statement. “That may change in 2016 if investors decide to take advantage of the current low stock values of the publicly traded companies.”
“After the records reached in 2014 in average price per unit and per bed, we were not expecting such a strong market in 2015, but we may hit some records again after we finish our tally of the year’s results, which will be published in the 21st edition of The Senior Care Acquisition Report,” Monroe added.
Written by Mary Kate Nelson
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