VICI Properties Inc.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Vichy Properties Second Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Please note that this conference call is being recorded today, August 1st, 2024. During the presentation, you can register to ask questions by pressing star followed by one on your telephone keypad. And if you change your mind, please press star followed by two. I will now hand you over to Samantha Gallagher, General Counsel with Vichy Properties. Samantha, please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator, and good morning. Everyone should have access to the company's second quarter 2024 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 Law. Forward-looking statements, which are usually identified by the use of words such as will, believe, expect, should, guidance, intends, outlook, 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 certain 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. The reconciliation of these measures, the most directly comparable GAAP measure, is available on our website and our second quarter 2024 earnings release, our supplemental information, and our filings with the SEC. For additional information with respect to non-GAAP measures of certain tenants and our counterparties discussed on this call, please refer to the respective company's public filings with the SEC. Hosting the call today, we have Ed Petoniak, Chief Executive Officer, John Payne, President and Chief Operating Officer, David Kieske, Chief Financial Officer, Gabe Wasserman, Chief Accounting Officer, and Moira McCluskey, Senior Vice President of Capital Markets. Ed and team will provide some opening remarks, and then we'll open the call to questions. With that, I'll turn the call over to Ed.

Thank you, Samantha. Good morning, everyone. As you may have figured out by now, I enjoy putting my thoughts together for VG's earnings calls. I try to share through these opening remarks not only what we've done, but what we're observing and learning from the marketplace. I may not always succeed in sharing anything genuinely fresh, but at the very least, I don't want my opening remarks to become repetitive. When I began putting these thoughts together in early July, the risk of repetitive remarks was high, given that until a couple of weeks ago, for REITs generally and net lease REITs specifically, not a lot had changed since last quarter's earnings call when I spoke of the big tech investing party that we REITs hadn't been invited to. In Bank of America's most recent fund manager survey, Michael Hartnett showed that that fund managers were underweight real estate at a level equal to and not seen since the depths of the great financial crisis. Then came a welcome CPI print, and REITs had begun a comeback that we believe can endure. Before we hear from John and David, and before we field your questions, let me say a few words about the principles that guide us in a REIT marketplace like the one we've been living through for a while now. We start by asking ourselves, is what we're going through, whether for all REITs generally or net lease REITs specifically, cyclical or secular in nature? There are REIT sectors that have secular issues right now. Office is an obvious example of a sector with negative secular trends. Data centers is the obvious sector with positive secular trends. We strongly believe that experiential real estate is another real estate category with positive secular trends, as evidenced by research recently published by McKinsey showing that, indexed back to 1959, the share of consumer discretionary income spent on experiences has grown to an index level of nearly 160, while the share of consumer discretionary income spent on things has shrunk to less than 75. Capitalizing on positive secular trends is fun. Addressing negative secular trends, not so much. Positive cycles for REITs are fun. Negative cycles for REITs or specific REIT sector, not so much. But it's always key to remember that cycles begin and cycles end, almost always driven by factors that are beyond the control of a REIT management team and board. In a period of lagging stock performance driven by cyclical factors, it can be tempting for REIT management teams and boards to start deviating from the REIT's long-term goals and strategies in hopes that the deviation can somehow overcome the cycle. At Vici, we strive very hard not to deviate. Here's the strategic principle we strive to stay true to in all cycles. We dedicate ourselves to investing in experiential buildings that meet these three fundamental quality factors. Location quality, in other words, well located in markets that have sound fundamental demographics and economics. Asset quality, meaning designed and built to serve the distinct needs of experiential businesses that have high economic dynamism and economic durability. operator quality, meaning occupied by an experiential operator that has high economic energy, ingenuity and expertise, and a strong balance sheet and credit profile. With every investment we make, we of course seek accretion as measured in ASFO per share, but that is not the only accretion we seek and measure. With every investment opportunity we evaluate, in addition to ASFO accretion, we ask, Is a given investment opportunity accretive to asset quality? Is a given investment accretive to tenant diversity and tenant quality? Is a given investment accretive to geographic and potentially categorical diversity and quality? Finally, can a given investment be accretive to balance sheet quality and potentially our credit ratings? We have not and will not grow for growth's sake if that growth doesn't continuously improve the quality and intrinsic value of our portfolio and balance sheet. We will not, as some of our net lease peers do, tell you we spent X hundreds of millions of dollars at Y percentage cap rate to generate Z dollars of new rent, but then never tell you into what we invested that amount of money. We will tell you what we invest in so that you can know what you own. The very good news is that our business development team, led by John Payne, is identifying and developing opportunities that meet our broader accretion criteria. And with that, I'll turn the call over to John. John?