Senior living and care saw 140 publicly announced mergers and acquisitions in the fourth quarter of 2023, and assisted living properties accounted for the plurality of them.
That’s according to data from LevinPro LTC.
Assisted living properties accounted for the plurality of fourth-quarter deals, at 44.3% of them, followed by skilled nursing at 35%. Independent living deals made up approximately 12.1% of the transactions, continuing care retirement / life plan communities accounted for 2.9% of them, active adult communities were 2.1% of the deals, and affordable senior housing accounted for 3.6% of them.
The deal total for the quarter represents a 22% increase from the 115 transactions announced in the prior quarter and a year-over-year increase of 32% from the 106 deals seen in the fourth quarter of 2022.
The M&A total for the fourth quarter of 2023 also surpassed the total for the last quarter before the pandemic began, the fourth quarter of 2019, when there were 116 deals. In fact, according to LevinPro LTC, the average deal total per quarter rose from 115 in 2019 to 121 in 2023.
In addition, the $3.95 billion spent on fourth-quarter 2023 transactions, based on disclosed purchase prices, increased by 464% from the $700 million spent on third-quarter 2023 transactions and by 95% from the $2.03 billion spent in the fourth quarter of 2022. On an annual basis, however, deal volume declined, year over year, as did the average size of transactions and the valuations, LevinPro LTC said.
From a full-year perspective, the total number of deals in 2023 fell 12%, year over year, from the 556 transactions of 2022 to the 491 transactions of 2023.
In 2023 overall, senior living accounted for 62.7% of the total deals, with skilled nursing making up the remaining 37.3%. In 2022, by comparison, senior living had accounted for 58.7% of the deals, and skilled nursing had accounted for 41.4% of them.
