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Strategies & Market Trends : Meditrust NYSE: MT -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim who wrote (33)	11/13/1998 2:43:00 AM
From: Jim	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 233

THESE GUYS HERE WILL BE LET GO OR PUT IN JAIL [READ THIS]By Edward Tobin NEW YORK, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Meditrust Cos. posted a $195 million third-quarter loss on Thursday and said it will separate its health care and hotel real estate companies, sell $1 billion worth of assets and take $450 million in charges for the restructuring. Meditrust, which expanded rapidly in the past year, said it would spin off its health care financing business into a stand-alone company late next year, creating one of the nation's largest publicly traded REITs focused entirely on health care investments. It also said it would sell off many non-strategic assets, including the Santa Anita Racetrack and a portfolio of golf-related properties as well as about $500 million in non-strategic health care properties. The day's news had little impact on Meditrust's stock, which fell 25 cents to close at $15.81 on the New York Stock Exchange. "The stock has seen the floor for now, assuming they meet all their debt covenants and have no problems paying bills," Peter Azcue, an analyst at Value Line said. "What we finally have in Meditrust, and what we haven't had in a long time, is a strategy and a time frame from which the company can now begin to finally recognize the value from what we believe is a pretty valuable real estate portfolio," Philip Martin, real estate analyst for Everen Securities said. Martin expects the company's stock to rise over the next quarter due to the strength of its portfolio. "Health care sets are very valuable because they are very stable, predictable cash-flowers. And La Quinta Inns, while not the sexiest hotel asset in the world, is a good cash-flower as well." The real estate investment trust, which had its credit rating lowered by Standard & Poor's Corp. credit rating service, also reported a third-quarter loss of $194.8 million, or $1.42 a diluted share, compared with a profit of $42 million, or 57 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. The Needham, Mass.-based company said funds from operations, a key measure of financial performance for REITs, fell to 60 cents a diluted share from 66 cents a share in 1997. Wall Street analysts' estimate was for 67 cents a share, according to First Call Corp., which tracks such forecasts. Third-quarter revenues jumped to $216 million from $74.7 million, but they were boosted primarily by the acquisition of La Quinta Inns Inc. during the quarter. Martin said he lowered his forecast for the REIT to $2.18 and $2.38 for 1998 and 1999, down from previous expectations of $2.57 and $2.85. He said these numbers reflect asset sales, debt reduction and taking care of an equity sale that Meditrust had with Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. First Call consensus estimates for 1998 and 1999 are $2.58 and $2.88. 23:47 11-12-98