In a recent issue of the New Yorker, writer Louis Menand described what happens to people as they start getting older. “It’s not long until you find that you are unable to stop talking about real estate,” he wrote, “which is the first step down an increasingly rocky and overgrown path that leads, almost always—all right, always—to death.”
Though growing old and real estate may not necessarily go together the way Menand describes, the connection between the two is drawing increasing attention from private equity investors, who are finding that the aging of America presents a growing (and hopefully profitable) set of opportunities.
Last month, Fortress Investment Group, in partnership with Brookdale Senior Living, announced the acquisition of American Retirement for $1.2 billion. The deal, which is expected to close in July, would create the largest operator of senior-living facilities in the US. To raise equity for the transaction, Fortress has lined up a number of co-investors, including CalPERS and CalSTRS, in a private equity vehicle reportedly called RIC Co-investment Fund.
In Canada, private equity firms including Madison Dearborn had been circling nursing home operator Extendicare for reported values of approximately C$2 billion until, at the end of last month, the company announced it was converting itself into a real estate investment trust.
And, in Europe, The Blackstone Group has built up a sizeable portfolio of assets through its portfolio company, Southern Cross Healthcare Group, the largest UK operator of nursing care homes. Earlier this month, the company announced that it would raise approximately ÂŁ275 million in an IPO on the London Stock Exchange.
These deals, and many others, mirror a trend that took place in the mid-1990s when private equity firms piled into nursing homes, drawn by the sector’s strong cash flow, significant real estate holdings and attractive demographics. Unfortunately, for many firms—not to mention their limited partners—changes in Medicare reimbursement rules effectively decimated the industry’s cash flow and led to a number of bankruptcy filings. In one notable example from 1997, Texas Pacific Group and The Cypress Group each committed $210 million to Genesis Health Ventures, which filed for bankruptcy four years later.
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Whether or not today’s crop of senior housing investors can avoid the ghosts that plagued their own forefathers, only time will tell.