James Flaherty
Analyst · Barclays Capital
Right. Let me take the big picture and then I'll end on the post-acute space, Adam. I would make a couple of comments. One, looking back at 2011, we closed a large volume but if you actually think about our incremental 2011 commitments, so commitments that we initiated in 2011, and think about those in the context of commitments in excess of $100 million, we actually only made one. And that was, of course, our commitment to effectively buy back $850 million of HCP stock at a price of $33.14 and then refinance that out at a higher price. So we've been very -- I think we've looked at everything, obviously, and we require, when we go forward with the transaction, we require that there's a positive spread to our weighted average cost of capital. And that incorporates reasonable underwriting assumptions, not seller-provided assumptions. So I think a lot of it -- we kind of think about the -- the Ted Williams quote that "You've got to wait for the right pitch". So that's a little bit of looking back at 2011. Moving to 2012, I would say that within our 5x5 business model, we have active discussions going on in each of our property sectors at the current time. So I think there's absolutely an increase in chatter and dialogue, and I think that's, without a doubt, the best leading indicator in terms of ultimate transaction volume. So that's how we kind of talk about the macro transaction environment. With respect, Adam, to the post-acute space, I would say that we obviously had a fourth quarter that was the first quarter of the RUGs-IV benefit going away. So for the most part, what we have seen with HCR and then more broadly within that space, we've seen people necessarily focused in the fourth quarter on the various cost-mitigation strategies that they have put in place. At this point, most of the heavy lifting is behind the sector and I think it's actually fair to say that as a result of that, kind of coming out of the year-end numbers, the accounting sign-offs and the reporting out of those numbers, there's been an uptick in dialogue in the space. Now let me also say, I've read a couple of sell-side pieces that have come out in the last week or so, talking about storm clouds parting in the skilled space and maybe things aren't as bad as they thought. I would just say that this is going to remain a challenging space with the political partisan reimbursement kind of backdrop. But we feel obviously, very, very good with the operating partner that is HCR and we work with them very, very closely. And so I'm optimistic that there will be some opportunities that present themselves that are good opportunities from the standpoint of HCR and from the standpoint of HCP.