UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FORM 8-K

CURRENT REPORT PURSUANT

TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE

SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported): June 29, 2016

SENIOR HOUSING PROPERTIES TRUST

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)

Maryland

(State or Other Jurisdiction of Incorporation)

617-796-8350

(Registrant’s Telephone Number, Including Area Code)

Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions:

o            Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425)

o            Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12)

o            Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b))

o            Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c))

In this Current Report on Form 8-K, or this Current Report, the terms “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to Senior Housing Properties Trust and certain of its subsidiaries, and “Five Star” refers to Five Star Quality Care, Inc. and certain of its subsidiaries.

Item 1.01.  Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement.

On June 29, 2016, we entered into a transaction agreement, or the Transaction Agreement, and related agreements, or, collectively, the Transaction Documents, with Five Star.  Pursuant to the Transaction Documents, among other things, on June 29, 2016, we and Five Star completed a sale and leaseback transaction with respect to certain senior living communities owned by Five Star and amended the management and related pooling arrangements for certain senior living communities we own that are managed by Five Star.  Significant terms of the Transaction Documents are summarized below.

·                  Pursuant to the Transaction Agreement, we and Five Star entered into a purchase and sale agreement, or the Purchase Agreement, whereby we purchased seven senior living communities from Five Star for an aggregate purchase price of $112.4 million, and we and Five Star simultaneously entered into a new long term lease agreement, or the New Lease, whereby we have leased those seven senior living communities to Five Star.

·                  Pursuant to the New Lease, Five Star is required to pay us annual rent of approximately $8.4 million, plus, beginning in 2018, percentage rent equal to 4% of the amount by which gross revenues, as defined in the New Lease, of each community exceeds gross revenues of such community in 2017.  The initial term of the New Lease expires on December 31, 2028, subject to Five Star’s options to extend the term of the New Lease for two consecutive 15-year terms.  Pursuant to the New Lease, Five Star may request that we purchase certain improvements to the communities in return for rent increases in accordance with the formula specified in the New Lease; however, we are not obligated to purchase such improvements and Five Star is not required to sell them to us.  Pursuant to the Transaction Agreement, we have the right, in connection with a financing or other capital raising transaction, to reassign one or more of the communities covered by the New Lease to another existing or new long term lease agreement between us and Five Star.  Other terms of the New Lease are substantially similar to those of our other four pre-existing long term leases with Five Star, such terms being described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, or our Annual Report, which descriptions are incorporated herein by reference.

·                  Pursuant to the Transaction Agreement, our three existing pooling agreements with Five Star that combined certain of our management agreements with Five Star for senior living communities that include assisted living units, or AL Management Agreements, were terminated.  Also pursuant to the Transaction Agreement, we entered into 10 new pooling agreements with Five Star, or the New Pooling Agreements.  Nine of the New Pooling Agreements combine six AL Management Agreements and one of the New Pooling Agreements currently combines five AL Management Agreements.  Each New Pooling Agreement combines various calculations of revenues and expenses from the operations of the applicable communities covered by such New Pooling Agreement.

·                  Pursuant to the New Pooling Agreements, the AL Management Agreements covered by each New Pooling Agreement generally provide Five Star with a management fee equal to either 3% or 5% of the gross revenues realized at such communities plus reimbursement for its direct costs and expenses related to such communities, as well as an annual incentive fee equal to either 35% or 20% of the annual net operating income of such communities remaining after we realize an annual minimum return equal to either 8% or 7% of our invested capital, or, in the case of nine communities, a specified amount plus 7% of our invested capital since December 31, 2015.  The calculations of Five Star’s fees and of our annual minimum return related to any AL Management Agreement that became effective before May 2015 and had been pooled under one of the previously existing pooling agreements are generally the same as they were under the previously existing pooling agreements.  However, with respect to certain communities, our annual minimum return was reduced to 7%, and also, with respect to the nine

communities referenced above, our annual minimum return was reset as of 2016 to the specified amounts.  With regard to AL Management Agreements that became effective from and after May 2015, the management fee was changed to 5%, rather than the prior 3%, of the gross revenues realized at the applicable community, and the incentive fee was changed to 20%, rather than the prior 35%, of the annual net operating income of the applicable community remaining, in all cases after we realize our requisite annual minimum return.  Pursuant to the New Pooling Agreements, we will pay Five Star a fee for its management of capital expenditure projects equal to 3% of amounts funded by us.

·                  The terms of the AL Management Agreements covered by the New Pooling Agreements expire between 2030 and 2039 and are subject to automatic renewals, unless earlier terminated or timely notices of nonrenewal are delivered.  The right that we and Five Star each had under the AL Management Agreements that became effective from and after May 1, 2015 to terminate each such AL Management Agreement as of December 31, 2016 was eliminated pursuant to the applicable New Pooling Agreement.  Five Star has a limited right under the AL Management Agreements to require underperforming communities to be sold, and we have the right to terminate all the AL Management Agreements subject to a New Pooling Agreement if we do not receive our annual minimum return under such New Pooling Agreement in each of three consecutive years, commencing with calendar year 2016, subject to certain Five Star cure rights.

·                  The New Pooling Agreements collectively combine all AL Management Agreements except for the management agreement related to one assisted living community located in New York and the management agreement related to one assisted living community located in California, and, other than as described below, the terms of those management agreements were not amended as part of the transactions contemplated by the Transaction Documents.  The terms of our existing pooling agreement with Five Star that combines our management agreements with Five Star for senior living communities that include only independent living units, and the terms of those management agreements, also were not amended as part of the transactions contemplated by the Transaction Documents.

·                  Pursuant to the Transaction Agreement, we and Five Star amended the management agreement for one California community so that the calculation of our annual minimum return under that agreement is fixed at $3.6 million plus 7% of any amount funded by us for capital expenditures at this community since December 31, 2015.

The foregoing descriptions of the Transaction Documents, including the Transaction Agreement, the Purchase Agreement, the New Lease and the New Pooling Agreements, and of the AL Management Agreements, are not complete and are qualified in their entirety by reference to the full text of such agreements and all exhibits and schedules thereto, copies of which are filed with this Current Report, or incorporated by reference herein, as Exhibits 10.1 through 10.14 and Exhibits 99.1 and 99.2 hereto.

Information Regarding Certain Relationships and Related Person Transactions

Five Star was our 100% owned subsidiary until we distributed its common shares to our shareholders in 2001.  We are Five Star’s largest stockholder.  As of March 31, 2016, we owned 4,235,000 of Five Star’s common shares, representing approximately 8.6% of Five Star’s outstanding common shares.  Five Star is our largest tenant and a manager of certain of our senior living communities.  Mr. Barry Portnoy, one of our Managing Trustees, is a managing director of Five Star.  We have significant continuing relationships with Five Star, including the leases and the management and related pooling arrangements referred to in this Current Report.  Mr. Barry Portnoy, and his son, Mr. Adam Portnoy, who is our other Managing Trustee, together own a controlling interest in, and are officers and employees of, The RMR Group LLC, or RMR LLC, which provides management services both to us and to Five Star, and are directors and officers of The RMR Group Inc., or RMR Inc., the managing member of RMR LLC.  We own shares of class A common stock of RMR Inc.  Each of our executive

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officers is also an officer of RMR LLC, and certain executive officers of Five Star are also employed by RMR LLC.  Certain of our Independent Trustees also serve as independent trustees or independent directors of other public companies to which RMR LLC provides management services.  Mr. Barry Portnoy serves as a managing trustee or managing director of those companies and Mr. Adam Portnoy serves as a managing trustee of a majority of those companies.

Because of the continuing relationships between us and Five Star, the terms of the Transaction Documents were negotiated and approved by special committees of our Board of Trustees and Five Star’s board of directors composed of our Independent Trustees and Five Star’s independent directors who are not also Trustees or directors of the other party, which committees were represented by separate counsel.

For further information about these and other such relationships and related person transactions, please see our Annual Report, our definitive Proxy Statement for our 2016 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, or our Proxy Statement, our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2016, or our Quarterly Report, and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, including Note 5 to our Consolidated Financial Statements included in our Annual Report, the sections captioned “Business”, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Related Person Transactions” and “Warning Concerning Forward Looking Statements” of our Annual Report, the section captioned “Related Person Transactions” and the information regarding our Directors and executive officers in our Proxy Statement and Note 10 to our Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements included in our Quarterly Report and the sections captioned “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Related Person Transactions” and “Warning Concerning Forward Looking Statements” of our Quarterly Report.  In addition, please see the section captioned “Risk Factors” of our Annual Report for a description of risks that may arise as a result of these and other such relationships and related person transactions.  Our filings with the SEC and copies of certain of our agreements with these related parties are publicly available as exhibits to our public filings with the SEC and accessible at the SEC’s website, www.sec.gov.

Item 7.01. Regulation FD Disclosure.

A copy of the press release that we issued announcing the transactions described in Item 2.01 of this Current Report is attached as Exhibit 99.3.

WARNING CONCERNING FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

THIS CURRENT REPORT ON FORM 8-K CONTAINS STATEMENTS THAT CONSTITUTE FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS WITHIN THE MEANING OF THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995 AND OTHER SECURITIES LAWS.  THESE FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS ARE BASED UPON OUR PRESENT INTENT, BELIEFS OR EXPECTATIONS, BUT FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS ARE NOT GUARANTEED TO OCCUR AND MAY NOT OCCUR.  ACTUAL RESULTS MAY DIFFER MATERIALLY FROM THOSE CONTAINED IN OR IMPLIED BY FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS AS A RESULT OF VARIOUS FACTORS, INCLUDING SOME WHICH ARE BEYOND OUR CONTROL. FOR EXAMPLE:

·                  THIS CURRENT REPORT STATES THAT SPECIAL COMMITTEES OF EACH OF OUR BOARD OF TRUSTEES AND FIVE STAR’S BOARD OF DIRECTORS COMPOSED SOLELY OF OUR INDEPENDENT TRUSTEES AND FIVE STAR’S INDEPENDENT DIRECTORS WHO ARE NOT ALSO TRUSTEES OR DIRECTORS OF THE OTHER PARTY AND WHO WERE REPRESENTED BY SEPARATE COUNSEL NEGOTIATED AND APPROVED THE TERMS OF THE TRANSACTION DOCUMENTS.  AN IMPLICATION OF THIS STATEMENT MAY BE THAT THE TERMS OF THESE AGREEMENTS ARE AS FAVORABLE TO US AS TERMS WE COULD OBTAIN FOR SIMILAR ARRANGEMENTS FROM UNRELATED THIRD PARTIES.  HOWEVER, DESPITE THESE PROCEDURAL SAFEGUARDS, WE COULD STILL BE SUBJECTED TO CLAIMS CHALLENGING THESE TRANSACTIONS OR OUR ENTRY INTO THESE AGREEMENTS BECAUSE OF THE MULTIPLE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG US, FIVE STAR AND RMR LLC AND THEIR RELATED PERSONS AND ENTITIES, AND DEFENDING EVEN MERITLESS CLAIMS COULD BE EXPENSIVE AND DISTRACTING TO MANAGEMENT.

THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN OUR FILINGS WITH THE SEC, INCLUDING UNDER THE CAPTION “RISK FACTORS” IN OUR PERIODIC REPORTS, OR INCORPORATED THEREIN, IDENTIFIES OTHER IMPORTANT FACTORS THAT COULD CAUSE DIFFERENCES FROM OUR FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS.  OUR FILINGS WITH THE SEC ARE AVAILABLE ON THE SEC’S WEBSITE AT WWW.SEC.GOV.

YOU SHOULD NOT PLACE UNDUE RELIANCE UPON OUR FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS.

EXCEPT AS REQUIRED BY LAW, WE DO NOT INTEND TO UPDATE OR CHANGE ANY FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS AS A RESULT OF NEW INFORMATION, FUTURE EVENTS OR OTHERWISE.

Item 9.01.  Financial Statements and Exhibits.

(d)  Exhibits.

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SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.

Dated: July 1, 2016

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