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Text: 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, as well as an explanation of the usefulness of the non-GAAP measures, are available under the Financial Information section of our website at www.
In addition, 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.
Today, I will discuss our first-quarter financial results, the COVID-19 pandemic and various industry issues and the vaccine rollout.
We are very pleased with our strong first-quarter results.
Our adjusted FFO of $0.85 per share, and our funds available for distribution of $0.81 per share allowed us to maintain our quarterly dividend of $0.67 per share.
The payout ratio is 79% of adjusted FFO and 83% of funds available for distribution.
Additionally, for the first quarter end in April, we collected virtually all of our contractual rents.
Over the last six months, we have issued $1.4 billion in bonds, and we have recast our $1.5 billion bank credit facility with a four-year maturity in 2025.
Our liquidity and our debt maturity ladder have never been stronger as we move forward facing the uncertain timing of pandemic recovery.
The allocation and distribution of additional government funding, along with the communication and evolution of clinical protocols, has been critical in protecting and saving lives as we combat this unprecedented deadly pandemic.
Looking forward, the key to our industry recovery is the return of occupancy to prepandemic levels.
Although we have seen occupancy stabilize and increase slightly as vaccines have rolled out, it is not clear that the pace of occupancy recovery will be sufficient to avoid industry-level cash flow issues.
With an estimated $24.5 billion remaining in the Provider Relief Fund and the likelihood of provider funding requests well in excess of this amount, we expect certain providers in the industry may have shortfalls.
Furthermore, although many states have provided meaningful support, there are many states where additional support will be necessary to avoid facility financial stress and potential closures.
We continue to strongly believe in the positive long-term prospects for our operating partners while acknowledging the possibility of near-term stress that some skilled nursing and senior housing providers may face.
Turning to the vaccine rollout.
We continue to gather vaccination data from our operators and can report the following.
As of April 30, all free clinics have been conducted at substantially all of our facilities.
Based on operators representing over 90% of our facilities reporting in, the vaccination rate for residents is approximately 81% with the vaccination rate for staff at approximately 49%.
This is a vast improvement over what we reported last quarter of 69% and 36% for residents and staff, respectively.
Turning to our financials for the first quarter.
Our NAREIT FFO for the quarter was $170 million or $0.71 per share on a diluted basis as compared to $181 million or $0.77 per share for the first quarter of 2020.
Revenue for the first quarter was approximately $274 million before adjusting for nonrecurring items.
The revenue for the quarter included approximately $12 million of noncash revenue.
We collected over 99% of our contractual rent, mortgage and interest payments for the first quarter, as well as for the month of April.
Our G&A expense was $10.4 million for the first quarter of 2021, in line with our estimated quarterly G&A expense of between $9.5 million and $10.5 million.
Interest expense for the quarter was $56 million.
Our balance sheet remains strong, and we've continued to take steps in 2021 to improve our liquidity, capital stack and maturity ladder.
In March, we issued $700 million of 3.25% senior notes due April 2033.
Our note issuance was leverage neutral as proceeds were used to repurchase through a tender offer, $350 million of 4.375% notes due in 2023 and to repay LIBOR-based borrowings.
As a result of the repurchase, we recorded approximately $30 million in early extinguishment of debt cost.
At March 31, we had $135 million in borrowings outstanding under our $1.25 billion credit facility, which matured at the end of the month, and $50 million in borrowings under a term loan facility that had a maturity in 2022.
On April 30, we closed a new $1.45 billion unsecured credit facility and a $50 million unsecured term loan facility that both mature in April of 2025.
We have no bond maturities until August 2023.
In March of 2020, we entered into $400 million of 10-year interest rate swaps at an average swap rate of 0.8675%.
These swaps expire in 2024 and provide us with significant cost certainty when we refinance our remaining 2023 bond maturity.
The repurchase of 50% of our 2023 bonds and the completion of the credit facility and term loan transactions extended our debt maturities, improved our overall borrowing cost and reinforced our liquidity position.
In the first quarter, we issued 2 million shares of common stock through a combination of our ATM and dividend reinvestment and common stock purchase plan, generating $76 million in cash proceeds, but we believe our actions to date provide us with flexibility to weather a potential prolonged impact of COVID-19 on our business.
It also provides significant liquidity to fund potential acquisitions.
In 2021, we plan to continue to evaluate any additional steps that may be needed to further enhance our liquidity.
At March 31, approximately 97% of our $5.5 billion in debt was fixed, and our funded debt to adjusted annualized EBITDA was approximately 5.2 times, and our fixed charge coverage ratio was 4.5 times.
When adjusting to include a full quarter of contractual revenue for new investments completed during the quarter, as well as eliminating revenue related to assets sold during the quarter, our pro forma leverage would be roughly 5.1 times.
As of March 31, 2021, Omega had an operating asset portfolio of 954 facilities with over 96,000 operating beds.
These facilities were spread across 70 third-party operators, located within 41 states and the United Kingdom.
Trailing 12-month operator EBITDARM and EBITDAR coverage for our core portfolio as of December 31, 2020, stayed relatively flat for the period at 1.86 times and 1.5 times, respectively, versus 1.87 times and 1.51 times, respectively, for the trailing 12-month period ended September 30, 2020.
These numbers were negatively impacted by a number of external factors as a direct result of COVID-19, including a significant drop in patient census and a dramatic spike in operating expenses, particularly labor costs and personal protective equipment.
These negative results were more than offset throughout 2020 by the positive impact of federal stimulus funds which were distributed in accordance with the CARES Act.
During the fourth quarter, our operators cumulatively recorded approximately $115 million in federal stimulus funds as compared to approximately $102 million recorded during the third quarter.
Trailing 12-month operator EBITDARM and EBITDAR coverage would have decreased during the fourth quarter of 2020 to 1.38 and 1.04 times, respectively, as compared to 1.53 and 1.18 times, respectively, for the third quarter when excluding the benefit of the federal stimulus funds.
EBITDAR coverage for the stand-alone quarter ended 12/31/2020 for our core portfolio was 1.33 times, including federal stimulus, and 0.78 times, excluding the $115 million of federal stimulus funds.
This compares to the stand-alone third quarter of 1.44 times and 0.97 times with and without the $102 million in federal stimulus funds, respectively.
Cumulative occupancy percentages for our core portfolio were at a pre-COVID rate of 84% in January 2020.
While they flattened out to around 75% throughout the fall months, they subsequently fell to 73.3% in December and further in January to 72.3% before starting to show signs of recovery at 72.6% in February and 73.1% in March.
Based upon what Omega has received in terms of occupancy reporting for April to date, occupancy has continued to improve, averaging approximately 73.4%.
We are cautiously optimistic that the rollout of vaccines, which began in late December of 2020 and continued in earnest throughout the first quarter of 2021, will provide a much-needed catalyst for improving occupancy statistics as infection rates continue to decline and visitation restrictions continue to ease.
Turning to new investments.
As previously announced, on January 20, 2021, Omega closed on the purchase of 24 senior housing facilities from Healthpeak for $510 million.
The acquisition included the assumption of an in-place master lease with Brookdale Senior Living, the leading operator of senior living communities throughout the United States.
The portfolio primarily consists of assisted living, independent living and memory care facilities with a total of 2,552 units located across 11 states.
The master lease with Brookdale will generate approximately $43.5 million in contractual 2021 cash rent with annual escalators of 2.4%.
Additionally, during the first quarter of 2021, Omega completed an $83 million purchase lease transaction for six skilled nursing facilities in Florida.
The facilities were added to an existing operator's master lease for an initial cash yield of 9.25% with 2.25% annual escalators.
Omega's new investments for the quarter totaled $610 million, inclusive of $17 million in capital expenditures.
During the first quarter of 2021, Omega divested 24 facilities for total proceeds of approximately $188 million.
As Taylor previously mentioned, there is approximately $24.5 billion left in the provider relief fund.
Additionally, $8.5 billion was allocated to rural providers with the passing of the American Rescue Act on March 11, 2021.
While it is likely that SNFs and ALFs will see some funds out of these remaining amounts, our operators are really looking to their states for new or increased stimulus, given the substantial amount of funding to states via the American Rescue Act.
This would be in addition to or as a continuation of FMAP increases previously allocated by states to SNFs.
Our hope is that those states who have previously not made any allocations to the sector will reconsider based on the new availability of funds.
With large outbreaks experienced across the country and therefore in the long-term care space in fourth quarter and into January, the preliminary results of the vaccine rollout, which Taylor mentioned earlier, have been a sign of hope.
There has been a substantial reduction in resident and employee cases since the rollout with our current reporting as of last week, showing less than 550 cases, resident and employee, across less than 250 of our buildings, which low numbers have not been seen since April of last year.
Likewise, we were extremely pleased last week to see revised CDC recommendations, both on the visitation and testing front.
Removing the regular requirement to test already vaccinated employees, unless symptomatic or during an outbreak, will go a long way in reducing the cost burden associated therewith.
And the relaxation of visitation restrictions, including the reduced need for social distancing and mask wearing in certain circumstances where visitors and residents have been vaccinated, will not only benefit the mental health of the current resident population, but it will also remove the disincentive previously in place for family members who want to place their loved ones in a long-term care setting.
Census will take time to rebuild, and reduction in expenses will be gradual over time, all while the ability to scale in place will be reduced with far less COVID cases.
Specifically, as it relates to expenses, labor shortages continue to be a huge concern for our operator base.
Prepandemic operators were faced with shortages due to low unemployment rates.
During the pandemic, the issue has been exacerbated by employees leaving the long-term care space, both permanently and temporarily, as the environment is understandably much tougher since the onset of COVID and unemployment benefits have been increased substantially.
This expected slow, long-term recovery means that continued financial support of both federal and state governments is critical, and we hope that they will be mindful of that as they determine how to spend any remaining or newly allocated stimulus funds.
In conjunction with Maplewood Senior Living, in late March, we completed license and opened our ALF Memory Care high rise at Second Avenue, 93rd Street in Manhattan.
The final project cost is expected to be approximately $310 million.
Lease-up momentum has been solid with 35 move-ins through April, the first full month of operations.
The COVID-19 pandemic posed certain challenges unique to senior housing operators, including increased costs, the challenges of managing COVID-positive patients and meaningful practical limitations on admissions.
While they very much appreciate the help they've received, private pay senior housing operators have not seen the level of government support provided to other areas of senior care.
We saw continued challenges to our senior housing occupancy throughout the fourth quarter, with variations tied to when and where COVID outbreaks were encountered.
However, we have seen evidence of stabilization and strengthening of census in certain markets.
By example, our Maplewood portfolio, which is concentrated in the early affected Metro New York and Boston markets, saw meaningful census erosion early in the pandemic with second-quarter census hitting a low of 80.4% in early June.
That said, their portfolio occupancy level had returned to 85.6% in the month of November.
Census has plateaued at this level for the time being as COVID-driven census challenges in select buildings offset further occupancy increases in the remainder of their portfolio.
Including the land and CIP, at the end of the first quarter, Omega Senior housing portfolio totaled $2.2 billion of investment on our balance sheet.
This total includes our recent Brookdale investment, which closed during the first quarter.
All of our senior housing assets are in triple net master leases.
This portfolio, excluding the 24 Brookdale properties, on a stand-alone basis had its trailing 12-month EBITDAR lease coverage fell 4 basis points to 1.08 times in the fourth quarter of 2020.
With COVID outbreaks having affected different markets at various times, this decrease in performance was to be expected.
Rising vaccination rates among residents and staff are a critical step to restoring occupancy and performance.
While we remain constructive about the prospects of senior housing, the COVID-19 outbreak has warranted a far more selective approach to development.
While we make further progress on our existing ongoing developments, we continue to work with our operators on strategic reinvestment in our existing assets.
We invested $16.8 million in the first quarter in new construction and strategic reinvestment.
$9.4 million of this investment is predominantly related to our active construction projects.
The remaining $7.4 million of this investment was related to our ongoing portfolio capex reinvestment program.

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compname reports q1 adjusted ffo per share $0.85.
q1 adjusted ffo per share $0.85.

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