IRVINE, Calif., Aug. 23, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Sabra Health Care REIT, Inc. (Nasdaq:SBRA), (Nasdaq:SBRAP) announced today that it received an upgrade to its credit ratings by Standard & Poor’s Rating Services (“Standard & Poor’s”), Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investor Services (“Moody’s”).
Standard & Poor’s
On August 17, 2017, Standard & Poor’s raised its corporate credit rating on Sabra to “BB+” from “BB-” with stable outlook. Standard & Poor’s also raised its issue-level ratings on Sabra’s senior unsecured notes to “BBB-” from “BB” and on the 7.125% Series A Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock (“Preferred Stock”) to “B+” from “B-“.
Fitch Ratings
On August 23, 2017, Fitch raised Sabra’s corporate credit rating to an Issuer Default Rating (“IDR”) of “BBB-” from “BB+”. The Company’s operating partnership, Sabra Health Care Limited Partnership (the “Operating Partnership”), was upgraded to an IDR of “BBB-” from an IDR of “BB+“ and the Operating Partnership’s senior unsecured notes, unsecured revolving credit facility and unsecured term loan were upgraded to “BBB-” from “BB+“ . The Company’s Preferred Stock was upgraded to “BB” from “BB-“.
Moody’s
On August 21, 2017, Moody’s raised both Sabra’s corporate credit rating and senior unsecured notes rating to “Ba1” from “Ba3”, with a stable outlook. Moody’s also raised its credit rating on Sabra’s Preferred Stock to “Ba2” from “B2”.
Commenting on the ratings upgrades, Rick Matros, Sabra’s CEO and Chairman said, “We are extremely pleased with the ratings upgrades we received as a result of the transaction with Care Capital Properties, Inc. Achieving investment grade ratings from S&P and Fitch represents the realization of one of our long stated objectives. These ratings upgrades provide an immediate improvement to our cost of debt under our recently completed amended and restated $2.5 billion credit agreement, lowering our spread over LIBOR by 75 basis points on revolver borrowings and 50 basis points on term loan borrowings as compared to our prior credit facility. These ratings upgrades will also provide a significant improvement in future debt costs as we continue to execute on our growth strategy.”
About Sabra
Sabra Health Care REIT, Inc. (Nasdaq:SBRA), (Nasdaq:SBRAP), a Maryland corporation, operates as a self-administered, self-managed real estate investment trust (a “REIT”) that, through its subsidiaries, owns and invests in real estate serving the healthcare industry. Sabra leases properties to tenants and operators throughout the United States and Canada.
SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This release contains “forward-looking” statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may be identified, without limitation, by the use of “expects,” “believes,” “intends,” “should” or comparable terms or the negative thereof. Forward-looking statements in this release include all statements regarding our expectations concerning our future debt costs and growth strategy.
Our actual results may differ materially from those projected or contemplated by our forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including among others, the following: the potential adverse effect on tenant and vendor relationships, operating results and business generally resulting from our merger with Care Capital Properties, Inc. (“CCP”); changes in healthcare regulation and political or economic conditions; the anticipated benefits of the merger with CCP may not be realized; the anticipated and unanticipated costs, fees, expenses and liabilities related to the merger; the outcome of any legal proceedings related to the merger; our dependence on Genesis Healthcare, Inc. (“Genesis”) and certain wholly owned subsidiaries of Holiday AL Holdings LP until we are able to further diversify our portfolio; our dependence on the operating success of our tenants; the significant amount of and our ability to service our indebtedness; covenants in our debt agreements that may restrict our ability to pay dividends, make investments, incur additional indebtedness and refinance indebtedness on favorable terms; increases in market interest rates; changes in foreign currency exchange rates; our ability to raise capital through equity and debt financings; the impact of required regulatory approvals of transfers of healthcare properties; the relatively illiquid nature of real estate investments; competitive conditions in our industry; the loss of key management personnel or other employees; the impact of litigation and rising insurance costs on the business of our tenants; the effect of our tenants declaring bankruptcy or becoming insolvent; uninsured or underinsured losses affecting our properties and the possibility of environmental compliance costs and liabilities; the ownership limits and anti-takeover defenses in our governing documents and Maryland law, which may restrict change of control or business combination opportunities; the impact of a failure or security breach of information technology in our operations; our ability to find replacement tenants and the impact of unforeseen costs in acquiring new properties; our ability to maintain our status as a real estate investment trust (“REIT”); changes in tax laws and regulations affecting REITs; and compliance with REIT requirements and certain tax and tax regulatory matters related to our status as a REIT.
Additional information concerning risks and uncertainties that could affect our business can be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), including Item 1A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016 and Item 1A of our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2017. We do not intend, and we undertake no obligation, to update any forward-looking information to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, unless required by law to do so.
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