When Opportunity Knocks, Schorsch Already Has

Yesterday’s big announcement of Ventas, Inc. buying American Realty Capital Healthcare Trust (ARC Healthcare) may have come as somewhat of a surprise to many. However, with ARC’s head honcho Nicholas S. Schorsch so frequently in the headlines for organizing deals, the news is far from shocking.

What makes the Ventas/ARC Healthcare merger particularly intriguing is the rumor that both companies had been in the running to purchase Griffin-American Healthcare REIT (Griffin Healthcare). The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the four finalists to potentially purchase Griffin Healthcare were Ventas Inc., Healthcare REIT Inc., American Realty Capital Healthcare Trust, and a division of Northstar Realty Finance Corp.

Ventas’s surprise purchase of ARC Healthcare throws a wrench in those works and leaves us with a number of questions. What does this mean for Griffin Healthcare? Are there now only two bidders for the non-traded REIT?

How did the deal between Ventas and ARC Healthcare come about? Was it through the knowledge that both were interested in Griffin Healthcare? Or was it concocted entirely separate to the bidding initiative? Perhaps the Ventas and ARC Healthcare merger simply suggests that Schorsch is always looking for opportunities and maybe even creating them in some instances.

The outcome of the Griffin Healthcare bid remains to be seen as does Nicholas Schorsch’s next savvy business move.