DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2022

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS

NOTE 1—DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS

Ventas, Inc. (together with its consolidated subsidiaries, unless otherwise indicated or except where the context otherwise requires, “we,” “us,” “our,” “Company” and other similar terms), an S&P 500 company, is a real estate investment trust (“REIT”) operating at the intersection of healthcare and real estate. We hold a highly diversified portfolio of senior housing communities, medical office buildings (“MOBs”), life science, research and innovation centers, hospitals and other healthcare facilities, which we generally refer to as “healthcare real estate,” located throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. As of March 31, 2022, we owned or had investments in approximately 1,300 properties (including properties classified as held for sale). Our company was originally founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois with additional corporate offices in Louisville, Kentucky and New York, New York.

We primarily invest in a diversified portfolio of healthcare real estate assets through wholly owned subsidiaries and other co-investment entities. We operate through three reportable business segments: triple-net leased properties, senior living operations, which we also refer to as SHOP, and office operations. See “Note 2 – Accounting Policies” and “Note 16 – Segment Information.” Our senior housing communities are either subject to triple-net leases, in which case they are included in our triple-net leased properties reportable business segment, or operated by independent third-party managers, in which case they are included in our senior living operations reportable business segment.

As of March 31, 2022, we leased a total of 332 properties (excluding properties within our office operations reportable business segment) to various healthcare operating companies under triple-net or absolute-net leases that obligate the tenants to pay all property-related expenses, including maintenance, utilities, repairs, taxes, insurance and capital expenditures. Our three largest tenants, Brookdale Senior Living Inc. (together with its subsidiaries, “Brookdale Senior Living”), Ardent Health Partners, LLC (together with its subsidiaries, “Ardent”) and Kindred Healthcare, LLC (together with its subsidiaries, “Kindred”) leased from us 121 properties, 30 properties and 29 properties, respectively, as of March 31, 2022.

As of March 31, 2022, pursuant to long-term management agreements, we engaged independent operators, such as Atria Senior Living, Inc. (together with its subsidiaries, including Holiday Retirement (“Holiday”), “Atria”) and Sunrise Senior Living, LLC (together with its subsidiaries, “Sunrise”), to manage 555 senior housing communities for us.

Through our Lillibridge Healthcare Services, Inc. subsidiary and our ownership interest in PMB Real Estate Services LLC, we also provide MOB management, leasing, marketing, facility development and advisory services to highly rated hospitals and health systems throughout the United States. In addition, from time to time, we make secured and non-mortgage loans and other investments relating to senior housing and healthcare operators or properties.

Continuing Impact of and Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Extended Consequences

During fiscal 2020 and 2021 and continuing into fiscal 2022, our business has been and is expected to continue to be impacted by both the COVID-19 pandemic itself, including actions taken to prevent the spread of the virus and its variants, and its extended consequences.

Accounting Considerations. We have not identified the COVID-19 pandemic, on its own, as a “triggering event” for purposes of evaluating impairment of real estate assets, goodwill and other intangibles, investments in unconsolidated entities and financial instruments. However, as of March 31, 2022, we considered the effect of the pandemic on certain of our assets and our ability to recover the respective carrying values of these assets. We applied our considerations to existing critical accounting policies that require us to make estimates and assumptions regarding future events that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities. We based our estimates on our experience and on assumptions we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. For both the three months ended March 31, 2022 and 2021, we recognized no COVID-19 related charges in our Consolidated Statements of Income.

Provider Relief Grants. We applied for grants under the Provider Relief Fund administered by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (“HHS”) on behalf of the assisted living communities in our senior living operations reportable business segment to partially mitigate losses attributable to COVID-19. These grants are intended to reimburse eligible providers for expenses incurred to prevent, prepare for and respond to COVID-19 and lost revenues attributable to COVID-19. Recipients are not required to repay distributions from the Provider Relief Fund, provided that they attest to and comply with certain terms and conditions.

During the three months ended March 31, 2022 and 2021, we received $34.0 million and $13.6 million, respectively, in grants in connection with our applications and recognized these grants within property-level operating expenses in our Consolidated Statements of Income in the period in which they were received.

Continuing Impact. The trajectory and future impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its extended consequences remain highly uncertain and will depend on a variety of factors, including the impact of new variants of the virus and the effectiveness of available vaccines against those variants; ongoing clinical experience, which may differ considerably across regions and fluctuate over time; and other future developments, including the ultimate duration, spread and intensity of the outbreak, the availability of testing, the extent to which governments impose, roll-back or re-impose preventative restrictions and the availability of ongoing government financial support to our business, tenants and operators. Due to these uncertainties, we are not able at this time to estimate the ultimate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.