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Ventas (VTR) Secures Finance for Ardent's Acquisition of LHP

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Ventas, Inc. (VTR - Free Report) , the Chicago, IL-based healthcare real estate investment trust (“REIT”) completed the secured debt financing of $700 million for its subsidiary Ardent Health Services’ acquisition of LHP Hospital Group, Inc. With this transaction, Ardent became the country’s second largest private, for-profit hospital operator, with 19 hospitals and related sites of care in six states and $3 billion in annual revenues.

To complete this purchase, parent company Ventas provided a five-year LIBOR-based loan. Also, Ardent received a considerable equity contribution from its majority owner, an affiliate of Equity Group Investments (“EGI”). Ventas also contributed equity to maintain its 9.9% equity stake in Ardent.

Ventas is engaged in the acquisition and ownership of seniors housing and healthcare properties, and leasing them to unaffiliated tenants or operating them through independent third-party managers. In February, Ventas reported fourth-quarter 2016 normalized funds from operations (“FFO”) of $1.03 per share, in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate. The bottom-line figure for the prior-year quarter was also $1.03.

Currently, Ventas carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
 
Shares of Ventas underperformed the Zacks categorized REIT and Equity Trust - Other industry over the past three months. During that time frame, shares of the company increased 1.7%, whereas the industry gained 2.1%.

 
Investors interested in the REIT sector, may consider stocks like Global Net Lease, Inc. (GNL - Free Report) , CoreSite Realty Corp. (COR - Free Report) and CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust, Inc. . All these stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here.

In the last 30 days, Global Net Lease’s funds from operations (FFO) per share for first-quarter 2017 escalated 11.1% to 60 cents.

In the last 30 days, CoreSite Realty’s FFO per share for first-quarter 2017 increased 5% to $1.06.

CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust’s first-quarter 2017 FFO per share estimates moved up 4.7% to $1.12, in the last 30 days.

Note: FFO, a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs, is obtained after adding depreciation and amortization and other non-cash expenses to net income. All EPS numbers presented in this write up represent FFO per share.

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