CHICAGO—First-quarter funds from operations forVentas Inc. increased 7% year over year to $323.4million while normalized FFO was $309.8 million, a 5% gain Y-O-Y,the healthcare REIT said Friday. Separately, thecompany announced that longtime CFO Richard A.Schweinhart would retire at the end of 2014.

For Ventas, Q1 represented “another terrific quarter of superiorgrowth in cash flow and normalized FFO per share,” saysDebra A. Cafaro, the REIT's chaiman and CEO. TheREIT attributes the growth to same-store increases in its seniorshousing operating and triple-net leased portfolios and to itsinvestments, which during Q1 included acquiring a trio of UKprivate hospitals for $183 million. The acquisition of thehospitals, which are triple net-leased to the UK's second largestoperator of private hospitals, furthers Ventas' strategy ofinternational expansion and represented the lion's share of its Q1investments.

“We continue to see highly favorable trends in global healthcarereal estate that should drive continued internal and externalgrowth for Ventas,” Cafaro says. The company is maintaining itsfull-year normalized FFO guidance at between $4.31 and $4.37 perdiluted share.