The number of mergers and acquisitions in seniors housing and care decreased in 2016 compared with 2015, according to data from two sources released Jan. 18. Information from Irving Levin Associates and the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care, however, differed on the specifics.
Over the course of the entire year, Levin said, preliminary data show that 337 seniors housing and care acquisitions occurred, a 6% decrease from the record number of transactions, 359, in 2015. In a Jan. 18 blog post, however, Bill Kauffman, a senior principal with NIC, said that 477 deals closed during 2016, down 15% from the record-setting 563 deals closed in 2015.
2016 ended on a positive note, according to Levin, with the number of publicized acquisitions increasing 33% from the third quarter to the fourth quarter, when 93 individual transactions occurred. The fourth quarter of 2016 was the third most active quarter ever, the company said, although acquisitions were down from the record of 106 set in the same quarter of the previous year.
The total dollar volume of seniors housing and care merger and acquisition activity reached $14.4 billion in 2016, slightly more than the $14.2 billion that 2015 saw, according to Levin. Kauffman, however, pegged transactions volume for seniors housing and care in 2016 at $14.1 billion and said that total annual volume in 2015 was $21.8 billion.
Again, the year ended on a positive note regarding dollar volume, Levin said, with the dollar volume of publicly known acquisitions in the industry more than doubling from the third quarter to the fourth quarter. Dollar volume went from $2.9 billion to $6.5 billion in that time, also representing a doubling of the year-over-year dollar volume, according to the company; it had been $2.3 billion during the fourth quarter of 2015.
Much of the growth in volume in the last quarter of 2016 came as some healthcare real estate investment trusts repositioned their large portfolios, said Steve Monroe, a partner at Levin. Kauffman said that acquisitions by institutional buyers and private buyers, including private REITs and partnerships, accounted for most of the dollar volume last year, and that most of the transactions were relatively small.
