Brookdale Senior Living, the nation’s largest senior living operator, is exploring options — including a potential sale — according to a published report.
News of a potential sale saw the Brentwood, TN-based company’s stock soar by as much as 29%, according to the Bloomberg news outlet, which cited unnamed sources in reporting that Brookdale is working with financial advisers to seek potential buyers.
A Brookdale representative told McKnight’s Senior Living that it does not comment on “market rumors or speculation.”
Last year, Brookdale sold 80% of its home health, hospice and therapy business to HCA Healthcare in a move to strengthen the company’s liquidity position and enabling it to remain “judicious” with investments.
A previous takeover target
In 2017, private equity firm Blackstone Group was rumored to be in talks to acquire Brookdale, but nothing materialized. Later that same year, similar rumors surfaced related to a deal with Chicago-based real estate investment trust Ventas. Ventas later denied it was in talks to buy the company.
Later in 2017, negotiations with Chinese real estate development and holding company Zhonghong Zhuoye Group Co Ltd. to purchase Brookdale ended without a deal.
Land & Buildings also has called for the operator to consider spinning off or selling its real estate over the years.
Brookdale focuses on building back occupancy
During a second-quarter earnings call in August, President and CEO Lucinda “Cindy” Baier said that with weighted average occupancy at 74.6% across its communities, the company was focused on building occupancy back to a pre-pandemic level of 85%. She said the next goal then would be to push for a return to Brookdale’s historically high occupancy level of 89%.
Baier said Brookdale was on a “strong path” of occupancy recovery, with second-quarter overall occupancy increasing 410 basis points (4.1%) year over year.
The company’s same-community senior living portfolio of properties — including independent living, assisted living, memory care and continuing care retirement communities — experienced an average occupancy increase of 420 basis points (4.2%) compared with the same quarter of 2021 and a 120-basis-point (1.2%) increase compared with the first quarter of 2022.
The sequential growth outperformed the industry, Baier noted during that call, and the increase represented the company’s best second-quarter sequential occupancy growth in more than 10 years. She also said that more than 2,200 residents moved in during August, representing the highest number of move-ins in a single month over the past four years.
Operator collects accolades
On a company basis, Brookdale had the most locations recognized in the U.S. News & World Report’s Best Senior Living ratings announced in May. Brookdale had 162 locations recognized via the program, as well as the highest number of total recognitions, at 176. The operator also had the highest number of recognitions in the memory care category, with 79.
Brookdale retained its position as the largest operator on the 2022 American Seniors Housing Association’s ASHA 50 lists of largest senior living operators and owners, as well as Argentum’s list of largest senior living providers, both released in August.
The operator also was among the senior living companies to earn the highest rankings in the J.D. Power 2021 U.S. Senior Living Satisfaction Study and was among those with the most communities on the Caring Stars of 2022 list by Caring.com.
