Last year, Brookdale Senior Living (NYSE: BKD) offloaded the majority of its struggling home health assets to HCA Healthcare (NYSE: HCA).
Now it’s reportedly exploring a sale of the entire company. At the beginning of the month, its shares were at a 52-week low. They shot up Friday when the reports of a possible sale surfaced.
A sale is not yet a certainty, according to Seeking Alpha. But the company is working with advisers to find the best path forward. Bloomberg first reported the exploration of strategic alternatives.
“As a matter of policy, we don’t comment on market rumors or speculation,” Kathy MacDonald, senior VP of investor relations for Brookdale, told Home Health Care News’ sister site Senior Housing News.
The last two years for Brookdale have been volatile ones. As senior living occupancy dropped during the pandemic, offloading the majority of its home health segment to HCA Healthcare seemed to make sense. That transaction became effective in July 2021.
The $400 million sale – of 80% of the segment – helped offload heightened costs from COVID-19 and its struggling health care services business. Maintaining a 20% stake allowed Brookdale the ability to still provide those services to residents.
In September of 2021, LHC Group (Nasdaq: LHCG) announced an agreement to purchase agencies in 22 states from the Brookdale-HCA Healthcare venture.
“In the past two quarters, we strengthened our liquidity position by nearly $350 million, when we successfully completed the 80% sale of our home health, hospice and outpatient therapy business to HCA healthcare,” Brookdale CFO Steven Swain said in February. “And then the Brookdale-HCA Healthcare venture subsequently sold a select group of agencies to LHC Group. We look forward to working with both companies and having these high quality health care services continue to be available for our residents.”
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