Gaming and Leisure Properties, Inc.

Welcome to Gaming and Leisure Properties' fourth quarter 2020 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Joe Giaffone, Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, Sherry, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Gaming and Leisure Properties' fourth quarter 2020 earnings call and webcast. The press release distributed yesterday afternoon is available on the investor relations section of our website at www.glpropinc.com. On today's call, management's prepared remarks and answers to your questions may contain forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements address matters that are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed today. Forward-looking statements may include those related to revenue, operating income, and financial guidance, as well as non-GAAP financial measures such as FFO and AFFO. As a reminder, forward-looking statements represent management's current estimates, and the company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements in the future. We encourage listeners to review the more detailed discussions related to risk factors and forward-looking statements contained in the company's filings with the SEC, including its 10Q, the earnings release, and definitions and reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures contained in the company's earnings release. On this morning's call, we are joined by Peter Carlino, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Gaming Leadership Properties, and Peter is joined by Desiree Burke, Senior Vice President, Chief Accounting Officer and Treasurer, Brandon Moore, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, Steve Ladney, Senior Vice President, Chief Development Officer, and Matthew Demchek, Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer. With that, it's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Peter Carlino, your host. Peter, please go ahead.

Well, thank you, Joe, and welcome to all who have dialed in this morning. Let me start by saying that 2020 was a bizarre year, I think, for all of us, and I'm just glad to be on this side of a brand-new year. But there's some good things that came out of last year for the company. We, in many respects, had one of the most successful, if not the most successful year we have had since our spin into GLPI. I think part of the good news is that we have proved what we've been saying all along, that the real strength of gaming is in the regions, not in Las Vegas. We've always, in the regional area, sold at a discount. Look, I get it. The Wynn is a lustrously spectacular property. Love to own it. But I'd rather have, frankly, if we're interested in return on investment, the kind of properties that we build at Penn, the kind of properties that are in the GLPI portfolio. We will and did collect 100% of our rents this year, which is terrific in the worst of times, which is what we have said all along would be the case. And we did a number of things as well to – some undisclosed, by the way – to strengthen relationships with each of our tenants. Notably, as you know, we provided the ability with a rent credit to help Penn at a time when maybe solvency was a question. That move has proven to be spectacularly successful, obviously great for us because our tenant is stronger by leaps and bounds. But moreover, you can see what's happened with them. So we have to feel particularly good. We acted swiftly. We acted early. There were a lot of questions about that at the time, but we thought it was the right thing to do in the long run. And, boy, has that proved to be a great, great result. Along the way, let me just highlight a couple things, because there's things, as I look at a summary here in front of me, that so far back in 2020 I almost forgot that have occurred. I'll remind you that we did enter into a membership interest purchase agreement with Penn for the Hollywood Casino in Perryville. You know, with Caesars, just quickly go through a couple of these things. We amended the Tropicana master lease. with Caesars to remove variable rent components, provide a fixed escalation and permit replacement of Tropicana Evansville and or Greenville at the time, as well as the removal of Bell and Baton Rouge. Complex and difficult things, but we got that accomplished for them. We exchanged Tropicana Evansville for the Isle Casino Hotel in Waterloo, the Isle Casino Hotel in Bettendorf. We entered into a repurchase agreement, which is very cool, to pick up the Evansville property again. It was gone, and we're thrilled to say we got it back, which was not a foregone conclusion, in a lease with Bally's, formerly Twin River Holdings. And then we permitted a transfer of Bella Baton Rouge to Casino Queen, which is owned by Stanford General. Moving on quickly, we entered into a membership purchase agreement to sell operations at Hollywood Casino Baton Rouge. We agreed to the terms of a new master lease between Hollywood Casino Baton Rouge and Casino Queen. And finally, we entered into an agreement providing a $4 million recovery of unsecured loan previously written off by the company with Casino Queen. With Bally's, we entered into an agreement to acquire Dover Downs in Delaware. Terrific. We're excited about that. Agreed to the terms of the new master lease that would include Dover Downs in the Tropicana Evansville. And we, you know, helped to broaden our tenant base further, which is always an objective for us. Miscellaneous stuff I had almost forgotten. We acquired Loomier Place in St. Louis, which we converted from an unsecured loan. That's way back, but that was a massive accomplishment, more than you might guess, that we're quite excited about. We acquired the Belterra property in Cincinnati from Boyd Gaming in satisfaction of a loan. We also notably received approval to go landside with our Hollywood Casino property in Baton Rouge. We're working on that right now. And I will say it would appear to us that GLPI is the only REIT to announce and sign a real estate acquisition following the COVID announcement last year. So as I look back on this, it was a pretty strong year for us. We're as hungry and interested and hardworking now as ever, if I can get that commercial. And one has to feel pretty good about the regional gaming business and the regional REIT business as well. With that said, I've already said more than I usually like to say up front. I'm looking at Desiree, and I'm going to ask her to make or highlight a few points that she thought you should be aware of.