Health Care REIT, Inc. Reports First Quarter 2009 Results

Business Wire, May 04, 2009

The company’s supplemental reporting measures and similarly entitled financial measures are widely used by investors and equity analysts in the valuation, comparison and investment recommendations of companies. The company’s management uses these financial measures to facilitate internal and external comparisons to historical operating results and in making operating decisions. Additionally, they are utilized by the Board of Directors to evaluate management. The supplemental reporting measures do not represent net income or cash flow provided from operating activities as determined in accordance with U.S. GAAP and should not be considered as alternative measures of profitability or liquidity. Finally, the supplemental reporting measures, as defined by the company, may not be comparable to similarly entitled items reported by other real estate investment trusts or other companies. Please see the exhibits for reconciliations of the supplemental reporting measures.

About Health Care REIT. Health Care REIT, Inc., an S&P 500 company with headquarters in Toledo, Ohio, is a real estate investment trust that invests across the full spectrum of senior housing and health care real estate. The company also provides an extensive array of property management and development services. As of March 31, 2009, the company’s broadly diversified portfolio consisted of 632 properties in 39 states. More information is available on the Internet at www.hcreit.com.

This document may contain “forward-looking” statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements concern and are based upon, among other things, the possible expansion of the company’s portfolio; the sale of properties; the performance of its operators/tenants and properties; its occupancy rates; its ability to acquire, develop and/or manage properties; its ability to enter into agreements with viable new tenants for vacant space or for properties that the company takes back from financially troubled tenants, if any; its ability to make distributions to stockholders; its policies and plans regarding investments, financings and other matters; its tax status as a real estate investment trust; its ability to appropriately balance the use of debt and equity; its ability to access capital markets or other sources of funds; its critical accounting policies; and its ability to meet its earnings guidance. When the company uses words such as “may,” “will,” “intend,” “should,” “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “project,” “estimate” or similar expressions, it is making forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties. The company’s expected results may not be achieved, and actual results may differ materially from expectations. This may be a result of various factors, including, but not limited to: the status of the economy; the status of capital markets, including availability and cost of capital; issues facing the health care industry, including compliance with, and changes to, regulations and payment policies, responding to government investigations and punitive settlements and operators’/tenants’ difficulty in cost-effectively obtaining and maintaining adequate liability and other insurance; changes in financing terms; competition within the health care and senior housing industries; negative developments in the operating results or financial condition of operators/tenants, including, but not limited to, their ability to pay rent and repay loans; the company’s ability to transition or sell facilities with profitable results; the failure to make new investments as and when anticipated; acts of God affecting the company’s properties; the company’s ability to re-lease space at similar rates as vacancies occur; the company’s ability to timely reinvest sale proceeds at similar rates to assets sold; operator/tenant bankruptcies or insolvencies; government regulations affecting Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates and operational requirements; liability or contract claims by or against operators/tenants; unanticipated difficulties and/or expenditures relating to future acquisitions; environmental laws affecting the company’s properties; changes in rules or practices governing the company’s financial reporting; and legal and operational matters, including real estate investment trust qualification and key management personnel recruitment and retention. Finally, the company assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements.