VICI Properties Inc.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Vichy Properties Third 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, November 1st, 2024. I will now turn the call over to Samantha Gallagher, General Counsel with Vichy Properties.

Thank you, Operator, and good morning. Everyone should have access to the company's Third 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 laws. Forward-looking statements, which are usually identified by the use of words such as will, believe, expect, should, guidance, intend, outlook, project, 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 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. A reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure is available on our website in our third 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 or 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 Lawyer 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, and good morning, everyone. It's an interesting world we're currently living in, isn't it? I wish this was a video call so that I could ask for a show of hands on how many of you predicted that the Fed would lower the Fed funds rate 50 beats in mid-September and over the next six weeks, the U.S. 10-year yield would rise 70 beats. If you work at a hedge fund and bet that prediction, let me know if you need help spending all the money you just made. At Fiji, we never tire of trying to make sense of the times we're living through so that we can be situationally ready for the future that may arise out of the present. To tell you about one of the means we use to make sense of the times we're living through, I need you to please grab that old-fashioned thing called a pen or pencil and that old-fashioned thing called a piece of paper. Draw a horizontal or latitude line on the paper. This axis will represent consumer economic conditions. At the left end of the latitude line, put lousy, and at the right end of the line, put great. Now, through the middle of the horizontal line, draw a vertical or longitude line. This axis will represent REIT capital market conditions. At the top end of the longitude line, put great, and at the bottom end of the line, put lousy. You now have one of the key maps we use at VG to determine at any given time where we are located latitudinally and longitudinally in relation to consumer economic conditions and REIT capital market conditions. and where we might be headed. Over VT's seven years of existence, we have operated in every quadrant on this grid, and we have successfully generated earnings growth and dividend growth during our journey through all these quadrants. Given 2024's volatility, we have operated in or verged on almost all of these quadrants year to date. We like where we currently are, in a good position to fund the opportunities we are working on, But as always at VG, we remain situationally ready for whatever lat long position we may be in or headed toward. We've worked hard to develop a philosophy, strategy, and practice of capital allocation that enables VG to allocate capital no matter which quadrant we find ourselves in at any given time. We achieved the sustained and sustainable capital allocation through two key means, internal funding capability through all cycles and investments that fund over time. When access to or cost of capital is in a negative quadrant, we want to be capable of what we've come to call capital markets independence, meaning that we have internal capital resources available to us that we can use to generate accretive external growth. At Vici, capital markets independence is funded through both retained cash flow and what we call regained cash flow, meaning repayments of loans we've made through Vici experiential credit solutions. Depending on the loan repayments received in a given year, our annual internal cash resources available for allocation can be anywhere from 350 million to 500 million. When levered with debt, this can give us 500 million to nearly 1 billion of investing power, even when, again, overall capital market conditions are not positive. BG's ability to fund external growth, no matter what quadrant we're in, builds off our foundation of same-store NOI growth that, thanks to our leases, rent escalation rates, and 100% occupancy, is far superior to conventional net lease REITs, as documented by Green Street. We capitalize on this sustained funding capability by developing investment opportunities that enable us to put capital out the door in a regular, sustained cadence, with Q3 2024 being an example of a quarter in which we announced no new transactions, but nonetheless put nearly $250 million of incremental capital to work through our property partner growth fund and lending initiatives. Sustainable capital allocation is integral to a subject that we are religious about. At VG, we are religious about the power of compounding, the compounding of earnings growth, the compounding of dividend growth, the compounding of total return. One of the keys of compounding is not go backwards, not in earnings, not in dividends, not in total return. A key to sustain forward momentum is the ability to generate earnings and value growth through all cycles in all quadrants of our VG conditions map. We don't know what the coming quarters will bring in REIT capital market conditions or consumer economic conditions, but we work every day to be ready for what may come. With that, I'll now turn the call over to John and David, who will talk about our growth outlook and current performance. John?