Item 6. Selected Financial Data

The selected financial data has been derived from our audited Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report and previous Annual Reports. You should read the following selected financial data in conjunction with “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” included in Part II, Item 7 of this Annual Report and our Consolidated Financial Statements and the notes thereto included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report, as acquisitions, dispositions, changes in accounting policies and other items may impact the comparability of the financial data.

(1)We consider Funds From Operations attributable to common stockholders (“FFO”) and normalized FFO attributable to common stockholders to be appropriate supplemental measures of operating performance of an equity REIT. In particular, we believe that normalized FFO is useful because it allows investors, analysts and our management to compare our operating performance to the operating performance of other real estate companies and between periods on a consistent basis without having to account for differences caused by non-recurring items and other non-operational events such as transactions and litigation. In some cases, we provide information about identified non-cash components of FFO and normalized FFO because it allows investors, analysts and our management to assess the impact of those items on our financial results.

FFO and normalized FFO presented in this Annual Report, or otherwise disclosed by us, may not be comparable to FFO and normalized FFO presented by other real estate companies due to the fact that not all real estate companies use the same definitions. FFO and normalized FFO should not be considered as alternatives to net income attributable to common stockholders (determined in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”)) as indicators of our financial performance or as alternatives to cash flow from operating activities (determined in accordance with GAAP) as measures of our liquidity, nor are FFO and normalized FFO necessarily indicative of sufficient cash flow to fund all of our needs.

We use the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (“Nareit”) definition of FFO. Nareit defines FFO as net income attributable to common stockholders (computed in accordance with GAAP), excluding gains or losses from sales of real estate property, including gains or losses on remeasurement of equity method investments, and impairment write-downs of depreciable real estate, plus real estate depreciation and amortization, and after adjustments for unconsolidated partnerships and joint ventures. Adjustments for unconsolidated partnerships and joint ventures will be calculated to reflect FFO on the same basis. We define normalized FFO as FFO excluding the following income and expense items (which may be recurring in nature): (a) merger-related costs and expenses, including amortization of intangibles, transition and integration expenses, and deal costs and expenses, including expenses and recoveries relating to acquisition lawsuits; (b) the impact of any expenses related to asset impairment and valuation allowances, the write-off of unamortized deferred financing fees, or additional costs, expenses, discounts, make-whole payments, penalties or premiums incurred as a result of early retirement or payment of our debt; (c) the non-cash effect of income tax benefits or expenses, the non-cash impact of changes to our executive equity compensation plan, derivative transactions that have non-cash mark-to-market impacts on our Consolidated Statements of Income and non-cash charges related to leases; (d) the financial impact of contingent consideration, severance-related costs and charitable donations made to the Ventas Charitable Foundation; (e) gains and losses for non-operational foreign currency hedge agreements and changes in the fair value of financial instruments; (f) gains and losses on non-real estate dispositions and other unusual items related to unconsolidated entities; (g) expenses related to the reaudit and re-review in 2014 of our historical financial statements and related matters; (h) net expenses or recoveries related to natural disasters; and (i) other incremental items set forth in the normalized FFO reconciliation included herein.

See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Non-GAAP Financial Measures” included in Part II, Item 7 of this Annual Report for a reconciliation of FFO and normalized FFO to our GAAP earnings.