72% Income Gain Posted by Health Care Property

Buoyed by profits from its growing string of acquisitions, Health Care Property Investors Inc. said Monday that its net income for the three months ended Sept. 30 was $3.8 million--a 72.7% increase over earnings of $2.2 million for the same period last year.

At the same time, the Costa Mesa-based real estate investment trust--which went public last year--said it has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a $75-million offering of 10-year senior notes.

For the nine-month period, HCPI posted earnings of $9.2 million. Comparable nine-month earnings are not available because the company was not publicly held for the entire period. Revenues of $7.5 million for third quarter, however, were up 74% from $4.3 million.

To help pay off most of the short-term debt it incurred in acquiring 28 health-care facilities since August, HCPI--which now owns, directly or through partnerships, 87 health-care facilities in 24 states--filed for the $75-million public offering of notes.

Proceeds from the deal--the first time the company has sold debt--will be used to repay short-term lenders who have provided the company with $83 million for the acquisitions since August, said Steve Maulbetsch, the company’s manager of acquisitions.

Maulbetsch said HCPI has short-term lines of credit with several banks totaling $100 million and customarily draws upon that credit for acquisitions. Although the long-term debt issue will not pay for the total cost of the 28 acquisitions, Maulbetsch said the company planned to “go buy more properties and do it over again,” continuing to refinance the short-term debt with long-term notes.

The current deal is being underwritten by a syndicate managed by Merrill Lynch Capital Markets.

Organized by Los Angeles-based National Medical Enterprises Inc., one of the nation’s largest for-profit hospital operators, Health Care Property leases 67 of the facilities it owns to subsidiaries of National Medical Enterprises.