MISSION VIEJO, Calif., July 17, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Ensign Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:ENSG), the parent company of the Ensign™ group of skilled nursing, rehabilitative care services, home health care, hospice care, assisted living and urgent care companies, announced today that it has agreed to purchase Keiro Nursing Home, a 300-bed skilled nursing facility in Lincoln Heights; South Bay Keiro Nursing Home, a 98-bed skilled nursing facility in Gardena; Keiro Retirement Home, a 127-unit assisted living facility on a senior living campus in Boyle Heights; and Keiro Intermediate Care Facility, a 90-bed intermediate care facility also located on the Boyle Heights campus.
Since 1961, Keiro Senior HealthCare (Keiro), a not-for-profit organization, has been a trusted senior resource, providing culturally-sensitive care options, wellness information, and programs to the aging Japanese American community. The name Keiro ("respect for our elders") reflects Keiro's commitment to enhance the quality of senior life in the Japanese community.
"We deeply admire the cultural values that Keiro represents and are honored to be entrusted with this stewardship and tradition of caring," said Christopher Christensen, Ensign's President and Chief Executive Officer. "We are dedicated to continuing and advancing the exceptional work that Keiro has been doing in this community for over 50 years and are excited to build on their legacy. Our unique, locally-driven approach to healthcare will allow us to customize our services to meet and exceed the personalized needs of each resident, staff member, and family."
"While the decision to sell our facilities has been personally difficult for many of us, the Keiro board and leadership take seriously their responsibility to be wise stewards of our community resources," said Shawn Miyake, Keiro's President and Chief Executive Officer. "With their extensive professional experience and personal familiarity with Japan and Japanese culture, we are very pleased that Ensign has stepped forward to carry on Keiro's legacy of care for our community."
The facilities will be purchased with cash and will be operated by Ensign's California-based subsidiaries. The acquisition is expected to be effective in the fourth quarter of 2014 and remains subject to the completion of certain regulatory approvals and other closing conditions.
Mr. Christensen added, "This strategic acquisition significantly strengthens our presence in the Los Angeles healthcare community and adds beautifully maintained real estate to our owned portfolio." Mr. Christensen also added that Ensign expects the facilities, all of which currently have a combined occupancy of 94.5%, to be operationally accretive to earnings in 2015.
Since Ensign first announced its recently completed spin-off of CareTrust REIT, Inc., it has announced 14 acquisitions, with Ensign purchasing and retaining the real estate in 11 of those transactions. The closing of the Keiro transaction will bring the total number of Ensign-owned properties to 11. Mr. Christensen reiterated that Ensign is actively seeking additional opportunities to acquire real estate or to lease both well-performing and struggling skilled nursing, assisted living and other healthcare related businesses across the United States.
About Ensign(TM)
The Ensign Group, Inc.'s independent operating subsidiaries provide a broad spectrum of skilled nursing and assisted living services, physical, occupational and speech therapies, home health and hospice services, urgent care services and other rehabilitative and healthcare services at 126 facilities, ten hospice companies, ten home health businesses and twelve urgent care clinics in California, Arizona, Texas, Washington, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, Nevada, Iowa, Nebraska, Oregon and Wisconsin. More information about Ensign is available at http://www.ensigngroup.net.
About Keiro Senior HealthCare
In 1961, eight community leaders established Keiro to provide compassionate, quality health care in a culturally-sensitive environment for the Issei (first generation Japanese) pioneers. Since that time, Keiro has been developing and offering new programs and services in response to the changing needs in the community. For over a decade, this has included a variety of community-based education programs like its well-known caregiver's conferences and the establishment of programs to support people to age in place at home, while preventing and managing chronic health conditions. More information about Keiro is available at www.keiro.org.