Omega Healthcare Investors Inc. has completed the first leg of its proposed acquisition of healthcare properties from CapitalSource Inc.

The acquisition involves nearly all of CapitalSource's healthcare facilities. The sales, to be completed in three phases, will provide CapitalSource, of Chevy Chase, Md., with $280 million in cash and shares in Omega, a Hunt Valley, Md., REIT. Omega, meanwhile, will assume a total of $529 million of debt on the properties it is buying.

In the first leg, it paid $294.1 million for 40 long-term care facilities with 5,264 beds and an option to buy another 63. A total of $184.2 million of the purchase price was paid in cash. Omega also issued 2.7 million of its common shares with a value of $50.6 million, and assumed $59.4 million of debt that carries a rate of 6.8 percent and matures in 2011. The debt can be extended for another year.

The 40 facilities are in 12 states and are leased, under triple-net agreements, to 12 operators and generate $31 million of annualized revenue.

If Omega chooses to exercise its option to buy the 63 other properties, which have 6,529 beds, it has to pay $295.2 million. It can do so anytime through the end of 2011. Those properties are leased to 18 operators and generate $34 million of annualized revenue.

To fund its initial purchase, Omega tapped some of the $191 million it had available under a $200 million credit facility and lined up a $100 million term loan from GE Capital. The loan has a five-year term and pays a rate pegged to Libor plus 550 basis points, subject to a 1 percent Libor floor. The loan pays only interest through 2012, then it starts to amortize over a 30-year schedule, with an assumed rate of 6.5 percent, until its 2014 maturity.

The loan is collateralized by 18 properties.

Omega said it expects to complete the second phase of its acquisition in early April. That will include 40 properties with 4,882 beds for which Omega will pay $270.4 million. The purchase price will be comprised of $65.1 million of cash and the assumption of a total of $205.3 million of debt, some of which was provided under a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development program. As such, that leg of the acquisition is subject to HUD approval.

Comments? E-mail Orest Mandzy or call him at (215) 504-2860, Ext. 211.