Mark Lamb
Analyst · KeyBanc Markets. Your line is open
Thanks, Dave. And hello everyone. On the investment front, Q2 was pretty quiet for us from a closing perspective, but it wasn’t from a lack of effort. We continue to be open for business, looking for an external growth opportunities that work for our operator bench, as well as for us, which are the deals we chased that fit our box, we’re either mistimed or mispriced, perhaps, that’s why one industry publication reported this week, that healthcare M&A for Q2 was the lightest ever. And much of it was in Europe, not the U.S. The pricing reset that one might logically expect in the current environment has been slow to materialize, at least on the seller side. This is not unusual in our experience and we continue to push sellers for realistic pricing while at the same time, acknowledging that buyers must be competitive too. But as you might imagine, the price discovery process is more unpredictable than ever right now. So we are sticking to our underwriting standards while we continue to aggressively pursue deals, even as we attempt to adjust on the fly for the uncertainties posed by the ongoing pandemic. In addition to historical cash flows and another underwriting metrics we would normally consider, there are additional factors that have lately come into sharper focus in our underwriting, including the strength or weakness and operating profile of the outgoing operator. Are they too large or too inefficient to quickly respond to the rapid changes affecting the business? Or are they too small or too unsophisticated to maneuver through today’s changing environment? We’re looking harder at skilled mix, average daily reimbursement rates and how well current operators are capturing revenue opportunities. We’re analyzing their staffing patterns and the other operating expenses for evidence as under management that can easily be corrected. And perhaps most importantly, we’re looking very hard at our incoming operator in their plan for the assets. Does it enhance their economies of scale? How much and how fast do we think they can change the operating profile of the asset through the execution of their business plan. And what evidence do we have of their operational history that they are likely to be successful? That’s an oversimplification of the process, but hopefully you get the idea. Plus after we factor in all of the above, at the moment, there are still COVID related headwinds than we must account for, which is tricky, but not impossible as evidenced by our pipeline, which I’ll discuss in a moment. Thankfully, the current investment has begun to show signs of life in recent weeks. There appear to be more senior housing opportunities, they’re still made up of mostly broken or non-stabilized assets. In some SNF operators that appear to be finally seeing a window of opportunity to exit the business, although, a lot of those assets are challenged as well. But we continue to dig through the opportunities in mind for the diamonds in the row. So despite the challenging, did the ask spread, we are cautiously optimistic that we will see and be competitive on more opportunities as we head toward the end of the year. As a reminder, year-to-date, we’ve executed on $26 million in new investments. The current pipeline sits in the $125 million to $150 million range. It consists of mainly singles and doubles in both the SNFs and seniors housing spaces. Our pipeline also includes a few portfolio opportunities that will not only strengthen existing tenant relationships, but will also allow us to further diversify our tenant base by commencing former relationships without standing operators that we’ve been quoting for some time. Please remember that when we quote our pipe, we only quote deals that we are actively pursuing under our current underwriting standards. And then only if, we have a reasonable level of confidence that we can lock them up and closing them in the relative near-term. And now, I’ll turn it over to Bill to discuss the financials.