VICI Properties Inc.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Vici Properties Fourth 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, February 20, 2020. I will now turn the call over to Samantha Gallagher, General Counsel with Vici Properties.

Thank you, Operator, and good afternoon. everyone should have access to the company's fourth quarter 2019 earnings release and supplemental information. The release and supplemental information can be found in the investor section of the Vici Properties website at www.viciproperties.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 condition. 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 GAAP measure is available in our fourth 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, and good afternoon to everyone on this call. We greatly appreciate you joining us. Over the course of our opening remarks and over the course of the call, we will discuss with you our 2019 Q4 and 2019 full-year key activities and results. John will cover our portfolio and business growth activities and results. David will cover for you our financial results and the continuing institutionalization of our capital structure. I'll begin by sharing our thoughts on 2019 as evidence of what we've been building over the last two years or so since Vici was born. From Vici's earliest days, we focused relentlessly on the methods by which we will manage and grow your REIT. Taking advantage of our collective REIT experience as a management team and as a board, we've attacked the following two questions with as much energy and rigor as we can manage. Question number one, what's the character of the culture that a great REIT grows out of? How do we attract and retain the best people on both our board and our management team so that we can live up to what I believe is axiomatic in real estate investment management And that axiom is simply the best people plus the lowest cost of capital wins. Question number two, what are the partnership principles and methods that build and sustain a great REIT? With our own people, with transaction partners, with advisory partners, with capital partners, both equity and credit, and with long-term operating partners or tenants. We focus relentlessly on these two questions because we believe finding the right answers to these questions is key to instilling and maintaining the right methods for managing, governing, and growing the REIT. And we focus intensely on our methods or our means because we fundamentally believe that the scalability of our REIT management and governance methods ultimately drives the scalability of our REIT results for our ends. Our 2019 achievements were of a magnitude matched by very few other American REITs in 2019. We had one of the most productive and value-creating years of any REIT in recent history. I'm proud of our achievements, but I'm even more proud that these outcomes are the result of the management team and the management method that we've been building since VEACHE Day 1. And that's because the results of 2019 are done. They are history. But what our management team and method can and will achieve in 2020 and beyond represents our future and the value we can continue to create for our stakeholders. Here's the essence of our strategic method, growing relationships. It is absolutely as simple as that. If we grow the right relationships in the right way, we will grow and sustain the value of the REIT in the right way. The right way comes down to growing and constantly bettering our business by growing new relationships with new partners and sustaining and broadening mutually beneficial relationships with existing partners. Let me quickly run you through our key partnerships. Number one, our people. In 2019, in our second full year of operation, VG was one of only eight American REITs to win certification as a great place to work. We are using the Great Places to Work program to ceaselessly monitor and improve the experience of our people because VG's success depends on the unceasing energy and engagement of our people. Number two, gaming partners. In 2019, we grew and bettered our portfolio by growing new relationships with operating partners in Reno, Nevada, El Dorado, Hollywood, Florida, Hard Rock, Vienna, Austria, Century Casinos, Detroit, Michigan, Jack Gaming. In doing so, we added to the relationships we already had with great partners in Las Vegas, Nevada, Caesars, and why I'm missing Pennsylvania, Penn Gaming. Number three, equity partners. In 2019, we grew and bettered our capital structure by growing our relationships with the equity investment community, becoming by the end of Q4 2019, the most owned triple net REIT by America's dedicated REIT investment managers as measured both as a percentage of market cap and in absolute dollars. And when it comes to Europe's top real estate investors, BG was their number one triple net holding at the end of Q4 2019. Number four, credit partners. In late 2019 and early 2020, we bettered our capital structure by initiating and quickly growing a relationship with a fixed income community. raising nearly $5 billion of unsecured debt at some of the best pricing achieved in recent history by our grade of credit. And we achieve that because, in part, we are recognized and given credit for our ambition to become an investment grade credit. Number five, learning partners. It is through our relationships with great operators and knowledgeable advisors that we learn about the gaming marketplaces, those where we already own gaming real estate and where we will potentially acquire more gaming real estate. Finally, number six, potential new sector partners. It is also by growing relationships with operators and asset controllers and advisors and other experiential sectors that we are learning and will learn about these other sectors, learning that will determine if, when, with whom, and how we will invest in other experiential sectors. This fundamental strategic method, growing our REIT and our value by growing our relationships with valuable partners, Sounds simple and basic, and it is. But during my career in real estate, I've been struck over and over by the tendency of real estate investment companies in many different sectors to sacrifice relationships for the sake of maximizing their take in a transaction. They sacrifice potential future growth by leaving the current counterparty saying to themselves and others in the marketplace, I will never do business with that company again if I can help it. That is not who we are at Vici, not today, not tomorrow, not ever. We are relationship builders, not destroyers, and by doing so, we believe we are value creators. Since our very first day, Vici's business development has been led by one of the very best relationship builders in American commercial real estate, John Payne. I will now turn the call over to John, and he will tell you about the relationships and value we built in 2019 and how we're approaching growth in 2020. John, over to you.