Medical Properties Trust Attributes Losses to Steward Health
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Medical Properties Trust Inc., a real estate investment trust that leases to health care systems, including Steward Health Care, announced net losses of $772 million in nonrecurring write-offs and impairments primarily related to Steward.
The overall net loss, reported in the release of MPT’s fourth-quarter results Wednesday, was $664 million for the fourth quarter of 2023 and $556 million for the full year.
MPT reported in January it was owed more than $50 million in unpaid rent from Steward, which locally owns Trumbull Regional Medical Center, Sharon Regional Medical Center and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital.
Steward and MPT reportedly have designed an action plan to strengthen Steward’s liquidity and restore its balance sheet, according to the release for investors. MPT funded $20 million to help Steward keep afloat and find its footing. Additional funding to help is expected to come from Steward’s asset-based lenders.
Predicting the possible sale of Steward properties as it attempts to recover, Edward K. Aldag Jr., chairman, president and CEO of MPT, made comments to investors in the report.
“With regard to Steward, we are encouraged by the amount of interest received to date from other hospital operators for these mission-critical facilities, and we expect this real estate portfolio will either resume its contributions to earnings or become additional sources of liquidity as the year progresses,” Aldag said.
Overall, MPT reported total assets at the end of 2023 of about $18.3 billion, with 439 properties and about 43,000 licensed beds leased in hospitals across the U.S., the U.K., Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Finland, Columbia, Italy and Portugal.
Steward has come under fire recently and has been sued for unpaid bills for vendors, including supply vendors.
Steward owns a large number of hospitals in Massachusetts, where Gov. Mara Heally sent a letter Tuesday urging the hospital chain to take steps to ensure safe staffing levels and supply levels at facilities in the state, allow the state’s Department of Public Health to increase its monitoring, immediately disclose financial documents and start the transition of divesting its seven licensed facilities in the state to new operators.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
