VICI Properties Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Vici Properties second quarter 2019 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Please note that this conference call is being recorded today, August 1st, 2019. I will now turn the call over to Samantha Gallagher, General Counsel with Vici Properties.

Thank you, Operator, and good morning. Everyone should have access to the company's second quarter 2019 earnings release and supplemental information. The release and supplemental information can be found in the investor section of the VG Properties website at www.vgproperties.com. Some of our comments today will be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements, which are usually identified by the use of words such as will, expect, should, guidance, intends, projects, or other similar phrases, are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties. that could cause actual results to differ materially from what we expect. Therefore, you should exercise caution in interpreting and relying on them. I refer you to the company's SEC filings for a more detailed discussion of the risks that could impact future operating results and financial conditions. During the call, we will discuss non-GAAP measures, which we believe can be useful in evaluating the company's operating performance. These measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for our financial results prepared in accordance with GAAP. A reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable gap measure is available in our second quarter 2019 earnings release and our supplemental information. Hosting the call today, we have Ed Petoniak, Chief Executive Officer, John Payne, President and Chief Operating Officer, David Kieske, Chief Financial Officer, and Gabe Wasserman, Chief Accounting Officer. Ed and team will provide some opening remarks, and then we will open the call to questions. With that, I'll turn the call over to Ed.

Thank you, Samantha. Good morning everyone and thanks for joining us on our Q2 2019 earnings call. The second quarter of 2019 has proven to be another extremely busy quarter in VG's short history. In a moment, John will recap our Q2 growth activities and David will recap our Q2 financing activities and financial results. But before we get to that, I'd like to spend a moment putting our Q2 activities and results into the context of what we're striving to achieve over the long term for our shareholders. BG is now almost two years old, and we have accomplished a lot in a short amount of time. In a nutshell, we have announced approximately $6.7 billion of acquisitions and raised approximately $5.6 billion of equity. We reduced our leverage from 8.4 times net debt to adjusted EBITDA at emergence to 3.7 times net debt to EBITDA at quarter end, by refinancing nearly $2 billion of debt at lower interest rates and eliminating over $1.3 billion of debt. We also increased the company's annual base rent by 181% if you include the incremental annual rent of the pending transactions announced but not yet closed. That is a lot of activity over the short term, all of which has been in pursuit of our goal to build an institutional REIT for the long term. Toward that end, we have upheld a relentless focus on the following. Improving our portfolio for the long term through our creative acquisitions and investments. Enhancing our lease structures and terms for the long run. Growing our tenant relationships and enhancing tenant strength for the long term. Having the broadest investment spectrum across the gaming real estate landscape. Building a balance sheet for the long term, a balance sheet that can successfully weather any economic or credit cycle we may endure. Building and executing a VG dividend strategy for the long term, a strategy that delivers a secure and well-covered dividend with sustainable growth, with dividend growth funded by achieved income growth, not anticipated income growth. building an ownership base for the long term, an ownership base that recognizes and values the quality, durability, and irreplaceability of our real estate, and building an unrivaled growth pipeline that gives our shareholders the value of predictable long-term growth years into the future. The investment community can trust that this relentless focus on creating long-term value means that we will not cede our prospects for creating lasting shareholder value for the purposes of capturing a short-term gain. With some of the longest-duration leases in the industry, we're able to take an expansive outlook and act accordingly. Take, for example, the stat I mentioned earlier, that we have announced approximately $6.7 billion of acquisitions and raised approximately $5.6 billion of equity. A REIT focused on immediate short-term accretion would not have relied as heavily on equity funding for the announced acquisitions especially not far in advance of acquisition closings. If we had not taken this disciplined approach, however, while we may have generated more immediate accretion, we would have sacrificed long-term value creation for that kind of short-term gain. Another short-term measure would have been to delay funding until closing, but in doing so, we would have taken significant market and pricing risk. In either case, we would not have stayed true to our relentless focus on building a REIT that can thrive through all cycles. a focus we believe is essential for our investors to be able to trust and rely upon as we act in their best interest in our capital allocation decisions. Looking back on the transactions we announced this quarter and those we have completed in our short history, you will see a consistency in that we fund our transactions in a manner designed to provide long-term funding certainty, long-term accretion, long-term security of cash flow, and long-term sustainability and growth of the VG dividends. We realize that the long-term nature of our acquisition and capital allocation strategies makes it challenging to calculate with precision the immediate impact of our related funding activities. We benefit greatly from cultivating a base of investors and covering analysts who collectively understand and support the long-term value creation that we believe our strategies will deliver. We especially value this understanding and backing when our shareholders stepped up with such strong support for the equity raised we launched concurrently with the announcement of our transformative transaction with Eldorado. And before I turn things over to John, I'd like to stress the degree to which our transaction with Eldorado was all about long-term value creation. We believe this transaction will enable us to, number one, contribute significantly to the long-term success and competitiveness of our largest tenant. Number two, significantly improve and extend our Caesars leases for the long term. Number three, add significant long-term AFFO accretion. Finally, number four, restock our growth pipeline for the long term. And that's a great introduction to what John has to say about our Q2 2019 growth activities. And with that, over to you, John.