Top officers Scott Brinker and John Thomas say the deal offers ‘great upside’
By John B. Mugford and Murray W. Wolf
The March 1 closing of the merger between Denver-based Healthpeak Properties Inc. and Milwaukee-based Physicians Realty Trust created a healthcare and life sciences real estate investment trust (REIT) valued at nearly $21 billion.
Behind the headlines, however, the two top executives from each of the REITs call it a “strategic merger,” one that brings together two complementary cultures and skill sets and which combines the two “best” balance sheets among the publicly traded healthcare REITs.
The motivations and strategies behind the merger were conveyed to HREI during an exclusive interview with Scott M. Brinker, who has retained the role of president and CEO of the newly merged Healthpeak, and John T. Thomas, who served as president and CEO of Physicians Realty Trust since its launch as a public company in 2013 and who is now the vice chair of Healthpeak’s board of directors, giving him an “an active role in strategy, relationships and business development.”
“We calculated that (the newly merged company) has more than 200 years of leadership experience in the outpatient care industry and in the healthcare industry,” Mr. Thomas said.
“And I think the really important point is that both companies were doing great prior to the merger,” he added. “I mean, our business was (going along really) well. Healthpeak’s business was going really well. We didn’t put this together to fix anything… In fact, in evaluating the market … the market is underappreciated, both outpatient medical and, for the last 18 months or so, the lab business as well. And that is unnecessarily so…
“In the end we both concluded that …
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