VICI PROPERTIES INC. Q3 FY2024 earnings call

Ed Pitoniak discussed VICI's capital allocation philosophy, emphasizing internal funding capability through retained cash flow and regained cash flow from VICI Experiential Credit Solutions. John Payne highlighted gaming as a major growth driver, particularly in Las Vegas, with examples like the Venetian Capital investment and partnerships with regional tenants. David Kieske touched on the balance sheet, liquidity, AFFO per share results, and updated full-year AFFO guidance, noting total liquidity of approximately $2.9 billion and AFFO for 2024 expected to be between $2.36 billion and $2.37 billion or $2.25 to $2.26 per diluted common share.

David Kieske updated the AFFO guidance for 2024 to be between $2.36 billion and $2.37 billion, or $2.25 to $2.26 per diluted common share. The guidance does not include the impact of unclosed transactions, interest income from loans without final draw structures, possible future acquisitions/dispositions, capital markets activity, or other non-recurring items.

Risks include market volatility affecting decision making, consumer economic conditions with mixed signals, and idiosyncratic structures in tribal gaming and property transactions that pose pricing and risk assessment challenges.

Q: Wanted to start with Tribal Gaming, see if you had any updated views there. Maybe you could spell out any parameters you would look for to execute any loans or sale leasebacks.

A: Yes, good morning, Barry. I think the starting point for us, VICI, is that over our seven years, led by John and the team, we have developed very positive, powerful relationships with American tribal nations. We currently have four tribal relationships. As you know, Barry, they all obviously involve partnering with tribes in commercial gaming opportunities off of tribal land. And when it comes, again, to doing business with tribes, we love doing business with them. They're commercial, they're collaborative and great to do business with. When it comes to doing business on tribal land, it is, again, not about tribes being idiosyncratic. It's about the structure that applies to tribal gaming on tribal land that is idiosyncratic. And when you have an idiosyncratic situation, it's sometimes useful to create a counterfactual that enables you to better understand the idiosyncrasy, the risks associated with the idiosyncrasy, and perhaps a better understanding of how to price the risk of that idiosyncrasy.

Q: John, you mentioned in your comments, just a lot of opportunities for things like, you know, reinvestment into properties and such. So I mean, can you just talk about just as you look at the pipeline, how much of it is now, really focused on on those types of investments versus, new acquisitions and whether that's changed much in the last quarter or two?

A: Yes, Tony, good morning. Very good question. I don't think it's changed. What I like about what we've done is created these pillars of growth. We've got opportunities to continue to have real estate acquisitions, as you referred to in my comments, the ability to grow with our property partner growth funds with assets that we already own, particularly in Las Vegas. Although, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, we do have some opportunities in our regional assets because they're large as well. And then we have this opportunity, as Ed mentioned, in his marks with VICI Experiential Credit Solutions, our credit book where it's open doors for us to come in, provide a credit solution and then over time, hopefully flip it into real estate ownership. So Tony, I wouldn't say we're focused more today on the property partner growth funds than the other two. I like the fact that we're spending time and I've got a team now that are spending time on all three of these, which will provide growth for us for the long-term.