Gaming and Leisure Properties, Inc.

Greetings. Welcome to Gaming and Leisure Properties' fourth quarter 2021 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in 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 from your telephone keypad. Please note that this conference is being recorded. At this time, I'll turn the conference over to Joe Giaffone. Joe, you may now begin.

Thank you, Rob, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Gaming and Leisure Properties' fourth quarter 2021 earnings call and webcast. The press release distributed yesterday afternoon is available in the investor relations section on 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 10Qs and definitions in the earnings release 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 of Gaming and Leisure Properties. Also participating in today's call are Desiree Burke, Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer and Treasurer, Brandon Moore, Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary, Steve Ladney, Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer, and Matthew Demchek, Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer. With that, it's my pleasure to turn the call over to your host, Peter Carlino. Peter, please go ahead.

Well, thank you, Joe, and good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining our fourth quarter earnings discussion. This quarter, and in fact, the entire year for GLPI, I think it's pretty eventful. Notably, we affected a variety of transactions, both large and small, while at the same time significantly improving our balance sheet, which was a major focus for us this year to get down to what we've internally called fighting weight. As always, we have prepared a very detailed press release with everything important pretty well outlined, so I'm not going to highlight every detail. Desiree and Matt will have some comment that we'll get to in just a moment. But we're most pleased to welcome the Cordish companies to our roster of the best regional gaming tenants in America. So in addition to Maryland Live, we just achieved approval for the acquisition of Philly Live and Live Pittsburgh, which is out in Westmoreland County in Pennsylvania. Cordish brings both a grouping of some of the best regional gaming properties in the country, for any of you who have seen them, and along with the skills of one of the best and most successful developers in America. We are looking forward to significantly more work with them over time. Also pleased to point out that part of the purchase price was funded with more than $300 million of OP units. which we view as a great vote of confidence in our company. So while you examine the new assets that we've just acquired with Cordus, I would invite you to look at the entire GLP website and what we believe is the best and certainly the largest assemblies of regional gaming assets in America. You know, I'm surprised from time to time talking to investors that they've never seen any of our properties, which is a surprise. and have no idea what kind of quality these properties represent. I do think that a trip through our website looking at what we have in our portfolio is instructive for many. With both, and I'll say, with both Cordish and Bally's at the same time, we believe that there is an additional path to growth with these companies And by the way, that could also include some of our existing tenants. We talked to Penn about a variety of investments that they may want to make going forward. So we see 2022 as already off to a great start. I would point out, too, that in the second half of this year, we expect to complete the acquisition of Bally's Rock Island in Illinois and Blackhawk, plus, of course, the balance of the quarters purchases. which will get us to, I think, 55 properties today. Once again, I think what you see in these recent transactions that gaming and leisure properties really never competes on the basis of its cost of capital. We're not in the auction business, but rather we compete by capability and our ability to assemble and conclude very complex transactions. So I also highlight that on a facility-to-facility basis, which I call especially to your attention, we've got the best cash flow coverage, four-wall coverage, property-to-property in the industry. And you can expect, which I highlight here, that we'll retain our same caution and care in making new investments. I've said publicly many times that we're not in a monument-building business. No transaction we have to do. We're very careful with our shareholders' money. because we, like you, are shareholders. One other comment I'll make is about dividends. We're pleased to announce a $0.02 increase, $0.08 over the course of the year annualized in dividends. And I think I can say safely that we expect Over the course of this year, when transactions close and the year evolves, that number will rise. Dividend growth is particularly important to me as a shareholder, as I suspect it is to many of you. And we will responsibly continue to grow our dividend as we are able. So with that, let me turn the prepared remarks over to Desiree Burke, our Chief Accounting Officer. Desiree?