American Healthcare REIT names Aric Chang CFO one day after $572m Kensington deal

American Healthcare REIT, Inc. (NYSE: AHR) has appointed Public Storage executive Aric Chang as chief financial officer only one day after completing approximately $572 million of senior housing acquisitions that pushed its year-to-date investment activity beyond $2 billion. Chang will take over on October 1 from Brian Peay, who is retiring after approximately a decade as chief financial officer and will remain available during a transition period.

The succession arrives during one of the most capital-intensive periods in American Healthcare REIT’s recent history. On September 1, the company completed acquisitions of six Kensington Senior Living communities containing 464 units for approximately $572 million, representing the initial portion of an eight-community, 745-unit portfolio carrying an aggregate purchase price of approximately $873 million. Those closings took American Healthcare REIT’s completed 2026 investments above $2 billion.

The company is also producing strong property-level growth while financing expansion through a combination of equity and balance-sheet capacity. Second-quarter same-store net operating income increased 13.2% across the portfolio, including 20.5% growth in senior housing operating properties, while management raised full-year Normalized Funds From Operations guidance.

Chang therefore is not arriving simply to maintain an established finance department. He is inheriting a REIT whose growth strategy increasingly depends on deciding which senior housing assets deserve capital, how aggressively acquisitions should continue and how those investments should be financed without allowing leverage to erase the operating gains.

Why did American Healthcare REIT choose Aric Chang from Public Storage?

Chang brings more than two decades of experience across publicly listed real estate companies, investment management and real estate finance. Since May 2023, he has served as Chief Financial Officer, Real Estate at Public Storage, where his responsibilities have included real estate and corporate finance, investment underwriting, financial planning and analytics.

His earlier career adds another dimension that is particularly relevant to American Healthcare REIT’s acquisition strategy. Chang previously worked in senior roles at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, where he was involved with a real estate platform managing more than $80 billion of assets, and has also held positions involving listed REITs and investment analysis. American Healthcare REIT described his combination of public-company finance, investing and operating experience as particularly useful as the company scales.

That background fits the job American Healthcare REIT increasingly needs its finance chief to perform. A rapidly expanding REIT requires more than accounting and reporting expertise because every acquisition creates decisions around cost of capital, expected property-level returns, equity issuance, borrowing capacity and the price at which incremental growth becomes economically attractive.

Peay’s retirement also appears orderly rather than forced. The company disclosed that his departure was a retirement after roughly 10 years in the role, and there was no indication of a disagreement over operations, policies or practices. The transition period gives Chang access to institutional knowledge while assuming responsibility for a considerably larger investment platform.

Why does the $873 million Kensington transaction make the CFO succession more important?

The Kensington portfolio illustrates how quickly American Healthcare REIT is scaling. The first six communities acquired for approximately $572 million contain 464 units, while the full eight-community transaction would encompass 745 units with an aggregate contractual purchase price of approximately $873 million once remaining closing conditions are satisfied.

These are not simply additional buildings added to a passive property portfolio. American Healthcare REIT is deliberately increasing its exposure to higher-acuity senior housing, where operating performance can be influenced by occupancy, labour costs, care intensity, pricing and the quality of regional operating partners. That can create greater growth than traditional net-leased healthcare property, but it also makes operational execution more important.

The scale of the transaction becomes even clearer when viewed alongside the broader investment programme. American Healthcare REIT had already completed $1.4 billion of new investments by the time it reported second-quarter results, including approximately $1 billion of senior housing acquisitions completed after quarter-end. The Kensington closings subsequently pushed total 2026 investment activity beyond $2 billion.

For Chang, the immediate task will be ensuring that rapidly deployed capital produces returns consistent with the assumptions used when the assets were acquired. Acquisitions can accelerate funds-from-operations growth, but investors ultimately need evidence that higher earnings per share are being created rather than growth being generated simply by issuing more equity and purchasing more property.

How strong is American Healthcare REIT’s operating performance while acquisitions accelerate?

American Healthcare REIT reported second-quarter GAAP net income attributable to controlling interest of $30.6 million, or $0.16 per diluted share. Normalized Funds From Operations reached $0.54 per diluted share, while same-store net operating income increased 13.2% across the overall portfolio compared with the year-earlier period.

Its operating senior housing businesses produced even stronger numbers. Same-store NOI increased 20.5% in the senior housing operating properties segment and 16.1% across integrated senior health campuses, with management attributing the improvement to occupancy gains, revenue management and expense discipline. Those figures help explain why American Healthcare REIT is comfortable committing additional capital to senior housing rather than treating the recent acquisition wave as opportunistic diversification.

Management also raised full-year expectations. Normalized FFO guidance increased to $2.15 to $2.19 per diluted share, which the outgoing CFO said would imply more than 25% per-share growth compared with 2025. Total portfolio same-store NOI growth guidance was increased to 11% to 13%.

That per-share element matters. REITs frequently issue equity to fund acquisitions, so absolute growth can be misleading if the share count rises too quickly. American Healthcare REIT’s stated objective is to demonstrate that property acquisitions and operating improvements are producing growth after accounting for the additional shares used to finance the strategy.

How has American Healthcare REIT financed such an aggressive acquisition programme?

The company has been unusually active in equity markets. During May, American Healthcare REIT entered forward-sale agreements covering 16.1 million shares for approximately $811.4 million of gross proceeds, while additional at-the-market forward transactions during the second quarter represented approximately $433.2 million. Further agreements entered after quarter-end represented another approximately $254.7 million of potential gross proceeds.

American Healthcare REIT also physically settled more than 23.3 million shares under forward arrangements after quarter-end for approximately $1.18 billion of gross proceeds. As of August 6, unsettled forward agreements could have generated another approximately $630.5 million if fully physically settled. These numbers demonstrate why capital markets expertise is becoming as important to the company as property acquisition expertise.

Importantly, growth has not resulted in worsening headline leverage so far. Net debt to annualised Adjusted EBITDA improved from 3.0 times at March 31 to 2.5 times at June 30, while total liquidity stood at approximately $2.6 billion against consolidated debt of around $1.4 billion. The company also expanded the revolving portion of its credit facility from $600 million to $800 million.

Chang consequently inherits a balance sheet with considerable flexibility, but also a business where capital issuance has become central to growth. The finance question is no longer whether American Healthcare REIT can access money. It is whether management can continue finding acquisitions whose expected returns justify deploying that money.

What does American Healthcare REIT stock performance say about investor sentiment?

American Healthcare REIT shares closed September 2 around $56.1, down roughly 0.8% for the session after gaining approximately 2.4% on September 1 when the Kensington acquisitions were announced. The stock was up about 19% in 2026 and approximately 34% over the preceding year, while its recent 52-week range extended from roughly $40 to $58.70.

That performance suggests investors have generally rewarded the senior housing growth strategy. The September 1 rise also indicates the market did not interpret the $572 million Kensington closing as evidence that American Healthcare REIT was overextending itself, although one day of trading cannot establish a lasting verdict on the economics of the transaction.

The stock’s proximity to its 52-week high raises the hurdle for the new finance chief. A higher valuation gives American Healthcare REIT a potentially attractive currency for financing further expansion, but investors paying a premium for growth will expect acquisitions to continue producing strong same-store NOI, funds-from-operations growth and disciplined leverage.

Aric Chang therefore arrives at a very different company from the one Brian Peay began helping to build a decade ago. American Healthcare REIT now has billions of dollars of annual acquisition activity, substantial access to equity capital and a rapidly expanding senior housing platform. The CFO job has evolved accordingly, from supporting a real estate portfolio to deciding how aggressively one of the sector’s fastest-growing investment platforms should keep deploying capital.