Thank you. I will now turn the conference over to Michele Reber. You may begin.
Thank you. Good morning. With me today is Omega CEO, Taylor Pickett; President, Matthew Gourmand; CFO, Bob Stephenson; CIO, Vikas Gupta; and Megan Krull, Senior Vice President, Data, Intelligence, and Government Relations. Comments made during this conference call that are not historical facts may be forward-looking statements, such as statements regarding our financial projections, potential transactions, operator prospects, and outlook generally. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are detailed in the company's filings with the SEC. During the call today, we will refer to some non-GAAP financial measures, such as Nareit FFO, Adjusted FFO, FAD, and EBITDA. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most comparable measure under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles are available in the quarterly supplement.
Certain operator coverage and financial information that we discuss is based on data provided by our operators that has not been independently verified by Omega. I will now turn the call over to Taylor.
Thanks, Michele. Good morning, thank you for joining our first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Today, I will discuss our first quarter financial results and certain key operating trends. First quarter Adjusted FFO, AFFO, of $0.82 per share, FAD, funds available for distribution, of $0.78 per share reflects strong revenue and EBITDA growth, principally fueled by acquisitions and active portfolio management. Our dividend payout ratio has dropped to 82% for AFFO and 86% for FAD. Our exceptional first quarter results reflect our high-quality capital allocation throughout 2025 and the first quarter of 2026. We continue to find and close RIDEA transactions while still allocating meaningful capital to SNF facilities and U.K. care homes. We expect our capital allocation and active portfolio management will drive significant future AFFO and FAD growth.
Our active portfolio management is highlighted by our planned and partially completed second quarter sales, generating $480 million in proceeds. We expect the redeployment of this capital will result in approximately $0.03 of annual AFFO and FAD accretion. I will now turn the call over to Matthew.
Thanks, Taylor. Good morning, everyone. We have spoken in previous calls about the team's focus on creating shareholder value by growing FAD per share on a sustainable basis. We saw this focus continue to bear fruit in the first quarter as our FAD per share increased 9.5% over the same quarter last year. This, along with a robust pipeline of investment opportunities, gave us comfort to be able to increase the low end of our AFFO guidance, moving the midpoint up by $0.02 to $3.22. At the same time, our first quarter investments reflect the breadth of our capital allocation focus. We invested in both triple net and RIDEA structures in skilled nursing, senior housing, and long-term care real estate across the U.S., the U.K., and Canada. We closed on our equity investment in Saber Healthcare Holdings, LLC.
In addition, we are in the process of selling a portfolio of 18 CommuniCare assets for $480 million. Vikas will provide additional details around the sale. However, from an overarching perspective, it was about putting assets into the hands of strong stewards at a price that made sense for each party while also enhancing our credit with CommuniCare. While we would not expect to see this be a core element of our capital allocation strategy, we will continue to evaluate our portfolio and work with our operating partners to find innovative ways to both protect and enhance shareholder value over time. Finally, I would like to thank the team who continue to work tirelessly to execute on our vision, as well as our operating partners and their staff who work every day to look after some of the sickest and most frail members of our community.
Without them, none of this would be possible. I will now turn the call over to Vikas.
Thank you, Matthew Gourmand, and good morning, everyone. Today, I will discuss the most recent performance trends for Omega's operating portfolio, including an update on Genesis, additional detail on our strategic sales, Omega's investment activity year to date, and an update on our pipeline. Turning to portfolio performance. Core portfolio coverage continues to trend in a favorable direction above industry average coverage levels with our trailing 12-month operator EBITDAR coverage for our triple net and mortgage core portfolio as of December 31st, 2025 at 1.58 times compared to our third quarter 2025 reported coverage of 1.57 times. This represents the highest coverage in our portfolio in over a decade and reflects the combination of a relatively favorable operating backdrop combined with our active portfolio management, where we have focused on strengthening the lease credit across our portfolio.
The Genesis bankruptcy process continues to move forward, with a few notable events having taken place in recent weeks. In March, we committed to fund up to $26.7 million or one-third of a new aggregate $80 million DIP loan. As of the end of the first quarter, we have funded our $25 million portion of the initial $75 million advance. Proceeds from this new super priority DIP financing were used to fully repay the original DIP loan and to fund working capital needs. Additionally, the debtor has been advised that 101 West State Street has submitted a qualified financing commitment as required by the asset purchase agreement. The closing date, which can contractually be extended to the end of the third quarter, is conditioned on several factors, including receipt of regulatory change of ownership approvals.
We anticipate that 101 West State Street will assume our Genesis master lease and our DIP loan and term loan will be paid off from the consideration received by the debtors at closing. We remain confident that our term loan is fully collateralized based on the underlying collateral and the ascribed value of the Genesis estate. These assumptions, along with all elements of the bankruptcy process, are subject to further developments in events in the bankruptcy proceeding. As Taylor and Matthew mentioned, we are in the process of a strategic sale of 18 CommuniCare assets located in Maryland and West Virginia for a contractual purchase price of $480 million and a rent discount at a blended 7.7%. Subsequent to quarter end, 12 Maryland facilities were sold, and we expect the remaining 6 West Virginia facilities to be sold in the second quarter.
While asset sales are not typically a core component of our capital allocation strategy, the strong pricing offered for these facilities combined with the improvement of our credit with CommuniCare presented an opportunity to realize significant value for our shareholders. Turning to new investments. Our transaction activity for 2026 started strong with $326 million in new investments year to date. Similar to previous quarters, these transactions varied in size and asset type, but demonstrate our ability to continue to develop, underwrite, and close accretive transactions in our core asset classes. We continue to support the growth of existing and new operators in the U.S. skilled nursing space and U.K. care home space, as well as expand our new senior housing RIDEA portfolio. As Matthew said earlier, our primary goal is to allocate capital with a focus on growing FAD per share on a sustainable basis.
During the first quarter of 2026, Omega completed a total of $251 million in new investments, not including $13 million in CapEx. These new investments included the previously announced purchase of 9.9% of the equity interest in Saber's operating company, the $109 million acquisition of 13 Georgia skilled nursing facilities, and a $10 million investment in an Alabama senior housing RIDEA transaction. Our other first quarter investments included the purchase of a U.K. care home for $7 million and $27 million in real estate loans. The weighted average yield on these leases and loans was 10.9%. Subsequent to quarter end, we closed $75 million of additional investments. We purchased 2 Indiana skilled nursing facilities for $33 million and 3 senior housing facilities in Rhode Island for $42 million.
The skilled nursing facilities will be leased to a current Omega operator at a lease yield of 10%. The senior housing facilities will be operated by Omega and managed by a third-party manager via a RIDEA structure. Turning to the pipeline. Our pipeline includes both marketed and off-market opportunities in the U.S. and the U.K. A large component of these opportunities are U.S. senior housing assets that will be structured and operated using our new RIDEA platform. As mentioned previously, we've built out our infrastructure at Omega with an experienced team of investment professionals that are finding deals that meet our investment criteria and then coupling them with proven third-party managers who we believe will deliver on those underwritten expectations. We continue to pursue deals that will achieve IRRs in the mid-teens range.
In addition to senior housing RIDEA deals, we are aggressively pursuing both U.S. skilled nursing and U.K. care home deals. In the U.K., we've built out our team to help find off-market transactions and quickly evaluate opportunities with existing and new operators in order to continue deploying meaningful capital through both triple net and RIDEA structures. I will now turn the call over to Bob.
Thanks, Vikas, and good morning. Turning to our financials for the first quarter of 2026. Revenue for the first quarter was $323 million compared to $277 million for the first quarter of 2025. The year-over-year increase is primarily the result of the timing and impact of revenue from new investments completed throughout 2025 and 2026, annual escalators, and active portfolio management. Our net income for the first quarter of 2026 was $159 million, or $0.47 per common share, compared to $112 million, or $0.33 per common share for the first quarter of 2025.
Our Adjusted FFO was $260 million, or $0.82 per share for the quarter. Our FAD was $247 million, or $0.78 per share. Both are adjusted for several items outlined in our Nareit FFO, Adjusted FFO, and FAD reconciliations to net income found in our earnings release, as well as our first quarter financial supplemental posted to our website. Our first quarter 2026 Adjusted FFO and FAD were both $0.02 greater than our fourth quarter AFFO and FAD, with the increase primarily resulting from incremental net income from $585 million in new investments completed during the fourth and first quarters and revenue from annual escalators of $2 million.
These were partially offset by income related to $53 million in asset sales and $88 million in loan repayments over the past two quarters, resulting in a $1.4 million reduction to our first quarter Adjusted FFO and FAD, as well as the impact from the issuance of a combined 7.7 million common shares of stock and OP units over the past two quarters to fund the new investments. Our balance sheet remains incredibly strong. Our debt is well laddered, and we have significant liquidity. At March 31st, we have $425 million in borrowings on our credit facility. However, we also have $26 million in available cash and assets held for sale, which we expect to sell for approximately $480 million.
Additionally, we have over $1.5 billion in available capacity on our $2 billion revolver, with our next scheduled debt maturity not until April 2027. At quarter end, our fixed charge coverage ratio was 6.3 times, and our leverage remained flat at 3.5 times. We are excited as our balance sheet and cost of capital continue to position us to accretively fund our active pipeline. Turning to guidance. As we press released yesterday, we narrowed our full year Adjusted FFO guidance to a range between $3.19-$3.25 per share. This is a $0.02 increase over the midpoint of our February guidance. I'd like to take a moment to highlight a few of the guidance assumptions we outlined in our earnings release.
Our guidance includes the impact of new investments completed as of April 27th and does not include any additional investments not outlined in our press release. It includes the impact of scheduled loan repayments and expected asset sales. Of the $159 million in mortgages and other real estate loans that are scheduled to mature in 2026, it assumes $65 million will convert to fee simple real estate and that the balance will be repaid. Additionally, $224 million in non-real estate backed loans at March 31, 2026 are expected to be repaid throughout 2026, which includes approximately $159.5 million in Genesis loans. The 18 CommuniCare facilities and assets held for sale are expected to be sold for $480 million.
Our Q1 rent related to these facilities totaled $9.2 million. The high end of the range in our guidance includes, but is not limited to, timing or potential extension of loan repayments and asset sales, additional cash from Maplewood as well as other cash-based operators, G&A at the lower end of the guidance range, just to name a few. Our 2026 adjusted FFO guidance does not include any additional investments, asset sales or capital market transactions other than what I just mentioned or that was included in the earnings release. I will now turn the call over to Megan.
Thanks, Bob. Good morning, everyone. With the budgetary season well underway in most states, we continue to watch for any signals of state reactions to the OVVBA as it relates to long-term care. As expected, things have been relatively quiet, with most meaningful discussions not expected until sometime next year. On a separate note, over the last year or so, Medicare Advantage has come under scrutiny due to allegations of upcoding, high denial rates, delayed payments, and cost savings not keeping pace with expectations. Last week, bipartisan legislation was introduced in Congress, applauded by industry associations, which addresses just these types of concerns. While I noted last time that Medicare Advantage represents a relatively low portion of our operator's business, the momentum behind fixing these issues is important to our industry as similar issues arise in Managed Medicaid.
Indiana, for instance, who implemented Managed Medicaid back in 2024, has decided to unwind that program specifically for the long-term care population in nursing homes for very similar reasons that we see in Medicare Advantage. We applaud these efforts to deal with these fundamental structural problems head on to ensure that our payment systems align with the needs of this frail and vulnerable population. I will now open the call up for questions.
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star, then the number 1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star 1 again. We do request for today's session that you please limit to 1 question and 1 follow-up. Your first question comes from the line of Nick Joseph with Citi. Your line is open.
Hi, this is Lauren on for Nick. Could you please elaborate on the rationale behind the CommuniCare asset sales and whether or not they're indicative of broader conditions in the Maryland and West Virginia markets? Thanks.
Hi. Yes, it's Matthew here. The primary reason for the disposition was opportunistic. We had an opportunity to sell assets and enhance our credit with CommuniCare. We were able to get a bid that we thought was fair to both parties. I think a little bit of it's a reflection of these are both relatively hot markets right now. Both Maryland and Virginia are markets that people are looking to acquire in. We took advantage of that to a certain extent. I don't think you can expect us to be doing this as part of the core business. Occasionally we will look to divest of assets. In this situation, we were also able to enhance our credit. To the extent that we can continue to do that, we will.
As we look out through to 2026, I don't think you're gonna see any large dispositions like this, happening in the next few quarters.
Got it. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Richard Anderson with Cantor Fitzgerald. Your line is open.
Hey, thanks. Good morning, everyone. When you think about your, you know, your external growth strategy, you know, through all the different layers you mentioned, SHOP, skilled and care homes. Can you talk about your comfort level on the initial yield? You know, I know we talked about this, Matt, in some length, but, you know, how low on the, you know, initial yield spectrum are you willing to go if you know, have line of sight into a, you know, a reasonable IRR over the long term? Just curious what your thought process is there. Thanks.
Yeah. I don't think we have a number. I would encourage the team internally not to see this as a competition to see how low we can go. I think it's more really about trying to find the long-term opportunity. If there truly is a situation today that there's a lot of low-hanging fruit that we can fix immediately, I don't think that there's a number necessarily we'd ascribe to the lowest we would go. I think we really have to look at, A, what the long-term opportunity is, and B, the visibility around that. You know, obviously, we'd be less reluctant to take a swing at things where there's cost-saving opportunities that we know a better manager can operate.
I think situations where you're looking at a facility that maybe has very low occupancy and historically had low occupancy, relying on a paradigm shift in that occupancy is probably a level of naivety that we wouldn't necessarily look to underwrite to. It's kind of contingent on the opportunities that present themselves and the risk-adjusted return that we assign to that.
Right. like, when you think about value add, like a low initial cap rate, you know, kind of concept, you know, do you think it'd be like a 50/50 split, you know, in terms of what you're looking at today, you know, relative to a more stabilized, entry level, return?
It kind of depends what the market presents us, Rich. You know, what you're finding right now is the stabilized assets that have the most stabilized margins, high occupancy, relatively newer vintage, they tend to be coming in at lower yields, but without that upside. From that standpoint, we have been fortunate enough to find stuff that is, you know, stabilized 7, 8, 9 that we think, you know, with a relatively easy lift we can take into the double digits. I don't think that we're gonna be looking at the true stabilized assets with a 7, where you're relying on predominantly rate increase to exceed costs to be able to drive that growth because occupancy and rate to a certain extent are already, you know, fully baked in.
From that standpoint, I think that most of the stuff we're going to be looking at is what we would say is value add.
Okay. My second question is on RIDEA. Will you take that show on the road a little bit in terms of, you know, looking at opportunities in the U.K. with a RIDEA mindset?
Yeah. This is Vikas. Yes. We actually are looking at a few opportunities right now, so it will become part of our strategy in the U.K. going forward.
Okay. Thanks very much.
Thanks.
Your next question comes from the line of Michael Goldsmith with UBS. Your line is open.
Good morning. I'm here with Dustin Hausvik. Thanks a lot for taking my question. Maybe sticking with CommuniCare, we estimate the cap rate was roughly 7.7% based on the contractual rent, but maybe it was a little bit lower given the EBITDA coverage and assuming the rent is renegotiated. Is that right? Also, you know, why do you think the private market for U.S. SNFs is so competitive right now? Is the best path forward for Omega to focus more on other segments until the competition cools for the SNFs? Thanks.
Your math is correct, so you get an A for that. Yeah, I think right now the competition has been strong for a number of years. I think a lot of people are looking at this as a long-term secular play. That's part of the reason we really like the space. You know, ultimately, there's been no net new supply for over a decade in this space. Most states have some sort of restriction on new supply.
To the extent that an operator is getting in today, even with, let's say, it was a, you know, mid-6s yield, if they believe that occupancy is going to continue to improve and that they can run these facilities well, the operating leverage that exists within the business alone can move this into the high single and low double digits yields over time for them. They have the opportunity, once these buildings are stabilized, to finance them to HUD, which is obviously a relatively low cost debt. That while there's a strong bid in the market, we don't think it's an irrational bid. We just think that it's reflective of the long-term secular plays that exist, and one of the reasons we aren't looking to sell prodigious amounts of our skilled nursing.
In terms of opportunities, yeah, we're seeing less of them, but we're still seeing select opportunities. I think we're just gonna you know, we're not gonna rule out or stop looking at skilled nursing. We're just gonna continue to remain very disciplined and look for opportunities that align with what we're trying to achieve from a FAD per share growth standpoint.
Got it. Thanks for that. As a follow-up, I noticed another quarter of healthy investment volume for your new SHOP segment. Maybe you can provide some color on the economics of that Rhode Island portfolio. Does Omega take more of a hands-off approach to its SHOP operations, given it's still a small segment? Or are you in the process of building out a data platform and other standard operating procedures related to SHOP?
Yeah. This Rhode Island deal falls right in the category of everything we've been talking about in our SHOP world. We are underwriting to stabilize mid-teen IRRs. It just follows all the protocols we've been saying. You know, we use our data, our underwriting, our entire team to get around that. It's just a typical RIDEA deal value add in our book.
The only thing I'd add is, you're right. Obviously, we don't have the level of experience and sophistication of some of our peers who've, you know, devoted years and significant amounts of money to rolling out, you know, various different technologies and have experience in that side of things. I think our attitude right now is we spend an awful lot of time both hiring, people internally who have great experience in this space, but also developing relationships as a team to understand really strong operators. Our attitude as of now is we're hiring them because of their expertise. For us, given our relative lack of expertise in this space, to start second-guessing them straight out of the gate, would probably be naive at best.
From that standpoint, while we obviously are, by our very nature, extremely focused on what they're doing and seeking to learn from them and understand from them, I don't think we're in a position to necessarily tell them how to run their businesses at this point in time. That's effectively what we're hiring them to do on our behalf.
Thank you very much. Good luck in the second quarter.
Thanks.
Your next question comes from the line of Julien Blouin with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.
Yeah, thank you for taking my question. I guess I just wanted to touch on the level of competition you're seeing in the transaction market, specifically in U.S. senior housing or RIDEA structures. I mean, we're seeing a lot of capital flowing into this space, I'm just wondering if you're finding it maybe increasingly more difficult to achieve sort of those mid-teens IRRs you're targeting.
Yeah. It is competitive. As you know, there's a lot of players in this space now. As Matthew mentioned, we are looking at a lot of value-add product, and we're finding it. The team's going out there. We're reviewing all transactions, and if it fits, it fits. You know, at the same time, everyone has its own underwriting criteria and, you know, for what we're looking for, we continue to find assets.
Okay. Great. Then back to the CommuniCare sale. I mean, yeah, clearly a strong cap rate just on current rents. Even if, you know, we were to assume a resetting of rents to more like, you know, your average EBITDA coverage of 1.5, that would mean an even sort of lower cap rate. I guess, like, is it What kind of buyer is this? Is this a buyer that really sees the potential to, I don't know, change management of the assets and improve operations? Is that a key part of their play?
I can't speak to what their rationale was behind that. What I can tell you is, you know, they're long-term players in the space, highly established, look to own the operations and the properties. I think that their belief is kind of, as we spoke to earlier, that there is a 20-year secular play here and that the price that they paid for these assets today, in 10, 15 years' time, may actually look an extremely good buy, given the fact that there's no new supply coming online, in most states. They are an established player, reputable. Other than that, I can't speak to what their plans are for the business.
Okay. Thank you.
Next question comes from the line of Omotayo Okusanya with Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.
Yes. Good morning, guys. I just wanted to talk a little bit about Medicare Advantage, a little bit. I think we've kind of seen a bunch of healthcare providers report over the past, last week, you know, UnitedHealth, you know, Humana. They're all kind of talking about, you know, CMS Medicare Advantage and the rollout of all these value-based care systems. You know, some of them seem to be adapting really well. Some of the people are kind of struggling with it.
I'm just kind of curious, again, when you were thinking about, you know, what the potential impact of this kind of more aggressive rollout of these value-based programs are in 2026, 2027, I mean, how do you kind of see that impacting kind of skilled nursing referrals from the hospitals and, you know, does that kind of change anything from that perspective? How do you expect skilled nursing operators to kind of react to all this kind of potential kind of value-based programs that are now infiltrating the system, so to speak?
You know, like I said last time, the Medicare Advantage isn't a huge piece of our business. It definitely has less of a penetration in the skilled nursing space than it does in the general Medicare population. At this point, there's not much in the way that it impacts our operators other than there are certain areas that have higher Medicare Advantage penetration. Sometimes those rates are materially lower than Medicare, and sometimes that means taking a Medicaid resident might make more sense than taking a Medicare Advantage resident at times. As an industry, I think there's a sort of a big pushback about trying to get those rates up to more reasonable numbers.
Like I said, in my talking points, you know, there's legislation last week to deal with some of these other issues that are going on, like the high denial rates, where typically you might have a high denial, but then if you push back it'll get approved, right? You shouldn't have that type of thing going on. I think the value-based care is a big thing, and it's something to watch, you know, for all of us. I think ultimately we try to partner with the most sophisticated operators who really that plays into their game plan really well.
Okay. That's, that's helpful. Just the occupancy trends in the past few quarters have kind of stagnated. Just kind of curious, what may be happening there is this stuff kind of changing with shift mix or like how do we kind of think about that just kind of given the overall backdrop of, you know, aging U.S. demographics and limited new supply?
I don't think there's any read-through over a few quarters as to what the occupancy is doing. The demographics are here and coming, and so ultimately you will see that needle move. Ultimately, when you look at our performance, the coverages, you know, provide ample coverage for our rent. We're good with where things are, and we expect to see the occupancy increase in this next year or 2.
Thank you.
Next question comes from the line of Nicholas Yulico with Scotiabank. Your line is open. Next question comes from the line of John Kilichowski with Wells Fargo. Your line is open.
Good morning. Thank you. My first question is just on the transaction market. Earlier, we talked about the competitiveness of SHOP, I actually would be interested in talking about the competitiveness of the SNF landscape today. You know, there's been a vacuum at least of recapital, I'm assuming of some other capital as well moving from skilled nursing in the SHOP. Are you finding it incrementally any easier to transact in the SNF space given the money that's moving over or is it still heavily competitive?
This is Vikas. The short answer, it's heavily competitive. We were able to find an off-market larger deal than we did in the first quarter, but it is competitive, and a lot of that is coming from the family office space still. Otherwise, we're just not seeing a lot of trading at this time that we like and that fit our investment criteria.
Okay. Got it. Very helpful. My second one for you is, we've got Tim Walz legalizing alcohol in SNFs in Minnesota. You know, what are we thinking for new build-outs? Speakeasies or local pub vibes? Is this Medicaid reimbursed? Are non-tenants gonna be allowed in?
I don't think that's necessarily something that we're looking at right now. Obviously, we have a history of partnering with operators who evolve no matter what the operating backdrop is, even if that includes the use of things previously prohibited in the facility. I suspect that our operators will thrive no matter what the circumstances are.
Got it. Thank you.
Next question comes from the line of Nicholas Yulico with Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.
Hi, good morning. This is Elmer Chang with Nick. Sorry about that earlier. My phone dropped. Sorry if I missed this, but my first question is on recent senior housing for day communities that you've been acquiring and as you further build out that platform. I know it's dependent on the opportunities that may be closer to stabilized assets, how should we think about underwriting NOI upside to earnings for those recent acquisitions?
Yeah, it's tough. I mean, thankfully, we're a $14 billion dollar company. We've put a couple hundred million dollars out, right? From that standpoint, I don't think it's gonna move the needle that much. I mean, I think if you're looking generally, Elmer, at the idea that I don't wanna put a number on it, but, you know, blended between 7 and 9 coming out of the gate on these things, I don't think you're gonna be too far off. Obviously, hopefully, that will meaningfully improve over time. Again, given the relative size of it right now, I think if you're in that ballpark, missing or exceeding expectations is probably gonna be limited given the relative size.
Okay. Got it. Thank you. I guess second question is, just going back to the planned CommuniCare sale. What assumptions in terms of initial yield and future growth are driving your estimates for the $0.03 of accretion to FAD that you expect? How much of the $480 million that's to be reinvested are maybe already deals under LOIs or under contract?
Yeah, we went back and forth on what the number was. I won't say $0.04 because technically, putting it back to look at a 10 gives you three and a half pennies, and that rounds up, but we decided to be conservative. The numbers probably are in the low 9s in terms of what we're saying. I still think we're gonna expect to deploy capital in the 10s, but that's kind of the math around it.
Yeah, I mean, we're not gonna talk too much about what's in LOIs today. You know, this is a really. It's an interesting market that we're in right now because to a certain extent in seniors housing and skilled nursing and care homes, you're seeing probably more appetite and more players than we've seen in well over a decade. This is clearly a space that is exciting people and creating interest. As a result, there are more competitors out there. We still, as we look out in the portfolio, see significant opportunities across all three platforms. From that standpoint, I don't want people being confused that just because it's a competitive market that we don't think that the pipeline isn't gonna be pretty robust for us over the next 24 months.
We're just going to have to be more selective, more, more creative sometimes in our structuring and just be on the road, quite frankly, and find more off-market deals through relationships. From that standpoint, I think we're in a pretty good place going forward, but nonetheless it is pretty competitive.
Okay. Thank you.
Next question comes from the line of Michael Carroll with RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open.
Thanks. I wanted to circle up on the Saber equity deal. I know that there's a minimum yield to that transaction, and it looks like the initial yield is coming in a little bit higher than that. Is this something that we should assume grows at a high single-digit, low double-digit rate each year just given the organic growth outlook that you're starting to see in skilled nursing facilities and maybe as you layer on new acquisitions and Saber can continue to grow externally? I mean, is that a good ballpark to think about the growth outlook that equity investment could potentially generate?
Yeah, this is Vikas. Let me answer that a little differently. As we said before, you're speaking of our Saber investment. Saber is a private company, we can't release financial information for them. We are very happy with our investment to date. It is beating expectations, and we're getting a return slightly above what we thought we would get. Saber plans to keep growing and they think like us. Good, smart transactions that are accretive. We just plan that there will be further growth here above our underwriting expectations.
Okay. No, that's helpful. Just kind of circling back up with Maplewood, has there ever been any discussions to kind of transition that Maplewood investment into like a pure RIDEA contract? I mean, I know that Omega still gets a lot of that upside just given how it's structured in the net lease side. Does it help to just simplify that agreement so everybody knows what needs to happen on that front? I mean, is that in the discussions at all?
To be honest, that's what we're doing right now. We see it as a RIDEA asset now, we don't see the need to do that. We've thought about it from time to time, right now we are truly treating this like a RIDEA asset. All of the cash flow comes to Omega, the team receives promotes for hitting certain cash flow hurdles. At this point, we don't see a need for it.
Okay. Great. Thanks. Appreciate it.
Next question comes from the line of Juan Sanabria with BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open.
Hi. Good morning. Just curious on the building out of the team in SHP or RIDEA, how we should think about that. Is that more on trying to source opportunities, or is that more or maybe inclusive of building out the asset management capabilities?
Again, this is Vikas. The answer is all of the above. We've hired a lot of smart people here to help us step up our investment criteria, underwriting abilities to go out there and find more relationships. To give you an example, we have boots on the ground in the UK now to go out there and find off market transactions for us. Additionally, both on asset management and accounting, we've hired a bit of people to help us manage our transactions after they close.
Just curious, you know, there's some news about litigation and some punitive damages awarded to victims, that the REIT was held culpable at the time it was Colony Capital, now DigitalBridge. Just curious on your thoughts there and if does that change the calculus at all and/or make you less hesitant on these transactions potentially in states like California, where there's more litigious?
I would like to think that that was a one-off unique situation because REITs do not get involved in the operations and are not involved in the patient care. To hold a REIT accountable for care that they're not providing does not make sense. We'll continue to watch the various different areas and make sure that that's part of our investment thesis.
Thank you.
Next question comes from the line of Wes Golladay with Baird. Your line is open.
Hey, good morning, everyone. Just wanted to have a quick question on how the SNF pipeline is evolving for the broader market. Are you starting to see more operators stabilizing assets and going directly to HUD?
Yeah, this is Vikas again. I mean, to be honest, we're not seeing a lot of SNF assets trading at all right now. Again, I think people are sitting on their assets and taking them to HUD. We've also, you know, like, we've seen broken deals can pop up from time to time, and so I think we're gonna start seeing some more of those as well in the future.
For those, would you look to loan on those or buy them outright?
Buy them outright.
Okay. Thank you.
Next question comes from the line of Vikram Malhotra with Mizuho. Your line is open.
Morning. Thanks for taking the questions. I guess just to, one, you know, you've had a nice pickup in FAD over the last several quarters. I'm wondering sort of what are latest thoughts on, you know, the dividend, you know, pushing that higher. Then just, I think Matthew, you made a comment on, like, focusing on the per share FAD growth. You know, with all these different levers you've outlined, like, where do you think that could trend to from today's growth?
Yeah, fair question. In terms of the dividend outlook, obviously it's a board decision. When you think about Q1 of 2025 at $0.71 of FAD, Q1 this year at $0.78 of FAD, and all the same tools in place to replicate that type of performance, I would think by year end, the board's gonna start to need to have conversations about our dividend.
Really it just comes down to velocity of putting some of the capital back to work because the escalator is in place, the portfolio is stable, we have excess cash flow rolling into the balance sheet, into investments, and then you have the pipeline. It's just how fast do we recycle those dollars. We will get there, whether it's Q1 in 2027 or Q2 in 2027. The tools are all there for us to perform at that level of growth.
Next question comes from the line of Michael Stroyeck with Green Street. Your line is open.
Thanks, and good morning. Maybe going back to the earlier question on U.K. RIDEA. How does the competitive backdrop within the U.K. compare versus the U.S., and has there been the same level of cap rate compression that we've seen in the States?
Yeah. There are some new players in the U.K. Again, through our relationships, we continue to find a good bit of deal activity out there that we can do at our current cap rates, where we are still quoting 10%.
That goes for the RIDEA side as well?
Yeah, it goes for RIDEA as well. Again, a little bit of our RIDEA growth there will be through our current relationships. Yes, same thing goes for RIDEA as well.
Got it. Got it. Maybe one question on Maplewood. Last quarter, you outlined, call it high single-digit rate increases across that portfolio. Can you just provide an update on how 1Q has progressed on that front?
Yeah. It, I mean, the net increases were just that, high single digit increases, with both D.C. and New York being at the very high end of it.
Got it. Thanks for the time.
Next question comes from the line of Farrell Granath with Bank of America. Your line is open.
Hello, this is Farrell Granath. I first just wanted to ask about how you consider or think about the balance between triple net with potential revenue upside, baked into the contract or a pure play RIDEA, and how you consider that in your acquisition pipeline?
You say the triple net with revenue upside?
With like a revenue participation similar with on Maplewood.
Yes. I mean, the Maplewood situation is kind of contrived from the background, right. In terms of that's how the deal started. At the end of the day, there are an operating team that have an operating company that have the rights to those operating profits if and when those profits exceed our rents. I don't think we'd necessarily be looking to create that situation again. As you say, you know, we have had these situations where we've effectively provided a lease with upside upon value realization. That's worked reasonably well. I think a lot of that was our first foray into some level of participation in the upside. Now we have kind of torn the Band-Aid off and gone full RIDEA. I think that's probably where our preference lies.
At the same time, it's very much about creating that alignment of interests with our partners, right? If someone else wants to participate in that upside and is willing to put capital in, we're open to creative situations, be they JVs, be they leases with upside, be they some form of debt that can convert to equity over time. We're really pretty agnostic as to that. I think the thing that we believe right now is that we have a strong underwriting ability and an ability to understand where value can be created. As long as we see where that value can be created and we can share in that value, I think we can structure the deal however it works for our operating partners and us.
Thank you. I guess also on a similar vein, when selecting the operators themselves to enter onto your SHOP platform, how do you think about or underwrite these operators in your selection? Do you have more of a focus on scaled operators or those that are maybe smaller looking to expand rapidly?
We are looking for experienced operators who have a proven track record. They tend to be regional. They know those markets well, have performed in those markets before. To be honest, it's a process. We interview several managers, and we pick the best one that fit all of those criteria.
Okay. Thank you so much.
There are no further questions at this time. I will turn it back to Taylor Pickett for closing remarks.
Thanks all for joining us this morning. Please follow up with the team with any additional questions. Have a great day.
Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.