Talks Reportedly Over in Proposed $3B Brookdale Sale to Chinese Investor

by Jeff Shaw

BRENTWOOD, Tenn. — The proposed $3 billion acquisition of Brookdale Senior Living (NYSE: BKD) by a Chinese investor has officially died, according to a report by Bloomberg.

Reuters reported in June that Zhonghong Zhuoye had made the offer to by the huge-but-beleaguered seniors housing owner-operator.

But then in August, Financial Times reported that, while the investor was close to reaching a deal, Chinese regulators had downgraded the company to “high risk,” which caused the Chinese bank funding the acquisition to put its financing on hold.

Zhonghong Zhuoye was reportedly prepared to pay $20 per share for Brookdale, but negotiations have ended without a deal, a source told Bloomberg.

Headquartered in Brentwood, Brookdale is by far the largest owner and operator of seniors housing in the United States. Its operational portfolio includes 1,048 properties and 102,055 units, according to the American Seniors Housing Association, which is nearly triple the size of the next largest competitor.

However, the company has struggled since its $2.8 billion acquisition of fellow seniors housing giant Emeritus in 2014. After initially experiencing a lift in the months following the merger, Brookdale’s stock price fell from $38.16 on March 2, 2015, to $11.80 on Feb. 8, 2016. Rumors of a sale of the company have swirled for months.

The company’s stock price closed at $10.03 on Tuesday, Oct. 31, down from $11.80 one year ago.

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