DigitalBridge Closes $3.1B Portfolio Sale, Santerre Health Formed to Manage Platform of Senior Housing and Health Care Assets – Senior Housing News
By Alex Zorn
DigitalBridge Group Inc.’s sales of its wellness infrastructure business, including numerous senior living communities, is complete.
DigitalBridge (NYSE: DBRG) — formerly known as Colony Capital —originally announced the sale in September 2021 to an investment group composed of Highgate Capital Investments and Aurora Health Network. DigitalBridge’s wellness portfolio included 118 senior living properties, 83 skilled nursing facilities and other health care assets, as of May 2021. The transaction valued the portfolio at $3.2 billion, according to a press release issued Monday.
Senior Lifestyle Corp. and Frontier Management were among the primary operators in the DigitalBridge portfolio.
Highgate and Aurora also announced the launch of a new health care-focused investment and operating platform called Santerre Health Investors, according to the press release announcing the deal closing.
New York City-based Aurora Health Network was co-founded by managing directors Joel Landau — chairman and founder of nursing home operator The Allure Group — and fellow health care operator Leo Friedman, CEO of Citadel Care Centers, according to its website.
“We look forward to leveraging our many deep relationships across the healthcare space as we join with Highgate in managing this portfolio in accordance with our core principles, focusing on clinical excellence and quality of care to achieve optimal results,” Landau said in the press release.
The deal includes $316 million of net value to DigitalBridge consisting of $116 million in cash and a five-year, $155 million seller note.
“This transaction marks the completion of our ‘diversified to digital’ transformation and further strengthens our corporate capitalization as we focus on continuing to build our industry-leading digital infrastructure platform,” Jacky Wu, CFO of DigitalBridge, said in the press release.
