VICI Properties Inc. Price & Performance (VICI)

Everyone should have access to the company's first quarter twenty twenty five earnings release and supplemental information. The release and supplemental information can be found in the Investors 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 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 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 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 the most directly comparable GAAP measure is available on our website our first quarter twenty twenty five earnings release our supplemental information our filings with the SEC.

For additional information with respect to non GAAP measures of certain tenants and or counterparties discussed on this call, refer to the respective company's public filings with the SEC. Hosting the call today, we have Ed Petoniac, Chief Executive Officer John Payne, President and Chief Operating Officer David Kieske, Chief Financial Officer Gabe Wasserman, Chief Accounting Officer William McCluskey, Senior Vice President of Capital Markets. 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 morning, everyone. Over the next few minutes, John will talk to you about our exciting new relationship with Red Rock Resorts our other growth activities, and then David will discuss our recent refinancing, our results, and our increased guidance. To start, I'd like to share my thoughts on what we at VICI anchor to in all times, especially in periods of high volatility and low certainty. And that is working to ensure that we maintain our ability to sustain and grow the current cash income we distribute to our stockholders in the form of our dividend. For a REIT management team, that should of course be standard operating procedure and because of that, one might think that the sustaining and growing of dividends would be top of mind for REIT investors as well.

Again, one would think and yet when we meet with our investors, which we do with great frequency, many of them will end the meeting by asking, is there anything we didn't ask about that other investors are asking about? When we are asked this question, we often answer with well, you didn't ask about our dividend, but don't feel bad because very few investors do. Call me old fashioned, but I believe strongly that dividends should always be a top of mind topic, especially for REITs but frankly for most equity investments. As I'm sure you all know, over the long term, the last one hundred years dividends have contributed about one third of the S and P five hundred's total return, and that's despite the fact that the long term dividend yields of the S and P 500 is averaged under 2%. Over the last thirty years. Given a greater dividend yield of REITs, dividends of core matter even more to REIT total returns. As of yesterday's close, the trailing five year total return of the RMZ REIT Index was 54%. Of which 27% was price return and 27% was dividend return. Over that same five year period, which I should note started in the spring twenty twenty COVID drawdown for stocks.

VICI has generated 138 percentage points of total return of which 84 points come from price return and about 54 points come from dividend return. I will also note that during that same five year period, the 500 generated a 91 points were price return and 15 points were dividend return. As you can see over that five year period, dividends were a major factor in VICI outperforming the 500 by a margin of over 30 percentage points or by about 30%. Over the last year or two, especially given the Mag seven's dominance of investor mind and market share, dividends didn't get a lot of attention. But it's been interesting in recent weeks amidst the volatility of both equity and credit markets to see dividends being talked about again. One of my favorite readings each week is Michael Hartnett's weekly flow show bulletin, which tends to come out late Thursday evening or early Friday morning. In his April 11 bulletin and is admittedly cryptic way, Michael made the following points, and I quote, on portfolios we say A, own credit, e. G. Long dated high quality U. S. Corporate bonds, many yielding 5% to 6% b, own equity income, 71 companies within the S and P five hundred have a dividend yield greater than 4%, 41 have a dividend yield greater than 5%, buy stocks that can defend dividend.

Did you get that? You get Michael's point that as of his writing on April 11 only 71 companies in the S and P five hundred had dividend yields about 4% and only 41 had dividends above 5%. What's notable about those dividend yields, especially the greater than 5% dividend yield, is that those yields are comfortably above the current rate of inflation and then thus generate a meaningful real return in a world where real return matters as much as ever. As a fellow VICI stockholder, it gladdens me to point out that as an 500 stock, VICI currently offers a dividend yield greater than 5% and we believe that that dividend yield is to paraphrase Michael Hartnett, a defended dividend. In the coming weeks and months, market volatility may die down. Or it may not. Who really knows? But whether market volatility dies down or not, a well defended dividend can and I believe likely will be a significant contributor to total return. For the market as a whole and for VICI and its stockholders. Everything we do at VICI is ultimately about total return in all of its key components. And so now I'll turn the call over to John and David who will talk further about what we're doing to drive total return over the near and long term.

Through our growth activities and through balance sheet and cost of capital off optimization. John? Thanks, Ed. Good morning to everyone. VICI is very proud of our core ability to develop relationships and convert them into valuable long term investment partnerships. Not only were we able to successfully do this with Cain and Eldridge teams in connection with one Beverly Hills earlier in the first quarter, but subsequent to quarter end we closed our first transaction in partnership with Rent Rock Resorts connected to the development of a casino on tribal land in Central California. As announced in our earnings release last night on April 4, VICI committed up to $510,000,000 of a delayed draw term loan facility for the development of the North Fork Mono Casino and Resort which will be developed and managed by Red Rock Resorts. Red Rock is a premier gaming, development and management company that operates productive assets in attractive geographies and they've developed over $9,000,000,000 of regional gaming and entertainment destinations. They were also an established leader in Native American gaming have developed and managed tribal casinos for over twenty years. Red Rock broke ground on the North Fork project in September 2024 and expects it to be completed by September of twenty twenty six.

Upon completion, the casino is expected to feature 2,400 slot machines 40 table games, two restaurants, three bars, a food hall and a small offering. The three zero five acre site located in Madera, California directly adjacent to Highway 99 four point two million people live within a two hour drive of the Northfolk site, This transaction establishes a formal relationship between VICI and Red Rock and represent Red Rock's first partnership with a REIT For VICI, it represents our first gaming investment on tribal land and our second investment on tribal land overall with the first being our Great Wolf Northeast loan announced in February of twenty twenty three. Lending on tribal land in partnership with a high quality gaming operator in Red Rock demonstrates VICI's ability to drive high quality opportunities for continued investment in the gaming sector. Another benefit of VICI's relationship based approach is that it fosters close communication with each of our tenants. Having just 13 tenants and eight financing partners on our roster allows us to maintain consistent and frequent dialogue with all of them, which is particularly advantageous during this volatile time such as these. We believe this level of communication coupled with the monthly financial reporting received from the majority of our tenants provides VICI with strong oversight of our portfolio.

Looking across our portfolio, we continue to be big believers in Las Vegas as there are just so many unique demand drivers that continue to fuel the city's activity. For example, over the Easter weekend, Las Vegas hosted WWE's WrestleMania at Allegiant Stadium. Drawing nearly 125,000 fans and marking the largest gate for any event in WWE history. T Mobile Arena has also hosted has recently hosted packed houses for Stanley Cup playoff games, the musical talent at The Sphere remains a compelling draw for the city. Additionally, during the first quarter, tens of thousands of guests attended conferences hosted by companies like Home Depot and Adobe flooded the city with activity. While a potential international travel slowdown has come into question, we would note that only 12% of Las Vegas visitation in 2024 was from international travel. Travelers. It is also possible Las Vegas may benefit from a domestic trade down effect if Americans forgo international destinations. In regional gaming, we continue to monitor the landscape and based on prior periods of heightened market volatility, we expect performance to be relatively resilient, Property performance will vary based on geography and asset, And at VICI, we focus on working with our tenants so they feel positioned to continue to successfully operate the properties we own.

Like I said, partnership is at the core of what we do. Is one of the key factors underlying our success in building this company as it drives current and future opportunities and allows our team to consistently seek to create value for our shareholders. Now I will turn the call over to David will discuss our financial results and guidance.

David? Thanks, John.

Great to speak with everyone today and we greatly appreciate your time. Starting with our Q1 capital markets activity and balance sheet, At the end of the quarter, we very successfully addressed all of our twenty twenty five maturities and now we have no debt maturing until September of twenty twenty six. On March 26, we priced our bond offering and at its peak our order book was six times oversubscribed. We issued $400,000,000 of three year notes at a coupon of 4.75 percent and $900,000,000 of ten year notes at a coupon of 5.625% or blended coupon of 5.34% including the impact of our hedging program. During the quarter, we also sold 7,800,000.0 shares raising $254,000,000 in gross proceeds under our ATM via the forward. And as I mentioned on our last call, in February, we recast our $2,500,000,000 unsecured multi currency revolving credit facility and extended the maturity until 2029 providing us additional duration and an ample source of liquidity. We have approximately $3,200,000,000 in total liquidity comprised of approximately $334,000,000 in cash dollars $625,000,000 under our outstanding forwards and $2,300,000,000 of availability under our revolving credit facility. Our net debt to annualized first quarter adjusted EBITDA excluding the impact of unsettled foreign equity is approximately 5.3 times within our target leverage range of five to 5.5.

Taking into account our recent bond refinancing activity we have a weighted average interest rate of 4.47% as adjusted to account for our hedge activity, and a weighted average six point seven years to maturity. Our proactive risk management of our cost of capital of our balance sheet, of our liquidity profile through volatile markets allows our team to stay focused on building relationships and our investment pipeline. This allows VICI to continue pursuing our sustained and sustainable return goals for our shareholders without having to go pencils down for any period of time. Just touching on the income statement, AFFO per share was $0.58 for the quarter, an increase of 4.3% compared to $0.56 for the quarter ended 03/31/2024. Our results once again highlight our highly efficient triple net model given the increase in adjusted EBITDA as a proportion of the corresponding increase in revenue our margins continue to run strong in the high 90% range when eliminating non cash items Our G and A was $14,900,000 for the quarter as a percentage of total revenues was only 1.5%. Which continues to be one of the lowest ratios in not only the triple net sector but across all REITs.

Turning to guidance, And as we noted in our release last night, we are raising our AFFO guidance for 2025 in both absolute dollars as well as on a per share basis. AFFO for the year ending 12/31/2025 is now expected to be between $2,470,000,000 and 2,500,000,000.0 or between $2.33 and $2.36 per diluted common share. Compared to our prior AFFO per share guidance of $2.32 to $2.35 the raise represents an increase of $00 at both ends of the range. Based on the midpoint of our increase 2025 guidance, VICI now expects to deliver year over year AFFO share growth of 3.8%. Just as a reminder, our AFFO per share guidance or AFFO guidance, excuse me, does not include the impact on operating results from any transactions that have not closed, interest income from any loans that do not yet have final draw structures possible future acquisitions or dispositions capital markets activity or other nonrecurring transactions or items. With that, operator, please open the line for questions.

And our first question comes from Steve Sakwa from Evercore ISI. Steve, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Yes. Thanks. Good morning. I guess, I wanted to focus on the newest deal and maybe just get a little bit more color on kind of the, I guess, the draw of the property given the location it's reasonably far from, say, the Bay Area I heard I think John's comments about the local population, but I guess, is it fair to assume that this resort is really being designed to just tap that Central California market? Do you expect other kind of draws into the area Just trying to get a better feel for kind of what's going to attract people there. And then secondly, given that being on Indian land, how does the collateral work to the extent something doesn't work out? I don't think you can own property on casino land. So just trying to understand sort the protections VICI has in the lending structure.

Sure, Steve. John, John Payne talking. Nice to talk to you this morning. We spent a lot of time over the years. First, we'll start with getting to know the operator of the business Red Rock Resorts. It's our first opportunity to work with them, but we've known them for years. We followed what they done in Las Vegas. We've watched their developments. Most recently, the Durango facility that's being built and is already being expanded. So we've been incredibly impressed with the way they operate their businesses. The way they run the facilities. And obviously, you could argue they are the best developers in the gaming space. They've been working on this facility with the the nation for over I believe, over twenty years and have studied how successful this can be. The catchment area, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, is large. And I do think there is what we've seen is there's a last mover advantage or a new business can attract new customers and steal customers from from others, particularly when you have a great operator who understands the way understands customers the way that Red Rock does. So we were very excited to work this opportunity and to announce this first deal with Red Rock.

I'll turn it over to David here who worked on a lot of the details of this deal.

Yes, Steve, good to talk to you. And just in terms of location, and the location is phenomenal. As John mentioned in his comments, it's right off the Highway 99. We 4,500,000 people go by the site. The competition in the area is will be far is far inferior to the quality of the build that Red Rock is developing here and that the draw that this facility will have in the area. And then just in terms of other ways that we got comfortable with it, in this that rock went out to to raise this capital and we participated in syndicate of large money center banks. So the total loan is $725,000,000 We're $510,000,000 of that commitment. And just given Red Rock's experience, as John alluded to, there is a guarantee from Red Rock to complete the project. We felt really good about stepping in and developing a relationship with Red Rock who is just one of the best developers out there in gaming as well as travel gaming facilities.

The next question comes from Barry Jonas from Truist Securities. Barry, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Just curious, if your view on tribal sale leaseback has changed at all. Obviously, you've done a lot of work on it and deal brings you a little bit closer, not quite there yet. Thanks.

Yeah. This is Ed. I'll I'll start and, John and David can add in. Tribal sale leasebacks continue to be for us a complex subject we haven't entirely figured out.

Steve was right to ask about the collateral on a lending package of casino on tribal land, but especially with the involvement of Red Rock, we have a high level of confidence that the asset can perform and that our collateral is good. And it's obviously in the of the tribe that Red Rock be able to operate the property successfully and that our loan eventually be able to be paid off. When it comes to a sale leaseback, I would say we still haven't exact exactly figured out if we can get comfortable with the nuances of owning property on a tribal land given the fact as Steve alluded to, in the event of any kind of default. We as the owner of the building would not have the right or the opportunity to operate the gaming, which is obviously the economic engine of the asset. So I would say at this point, we are still very much in a learning phase, but very, very glad to be to be partnering with the tribe and with Red Rock in this opportunity. David or John, anything you want to add?

No. You cover the line.

Great. And then just as a follow-up, given the macro environment, I'm just curious if you're seeing tariffs impact any of your partners in terms of their construction budgets or timing? Any impact to maybe drawdown schedules or else? Future discussions for pipeline? Thanks.

Yeah. No, it's a very good question, Barry. You know, as a as a general principle, there are obviously general conditions across the construction landscape And, you know, when it when it comes to general conditions, you really wanna be able to understand, are you partnering with a development company that is very experienced in development through thick and thin Or are you partnering with an operator with a deep and successful track record of development?

So whether it's Kane at One Beverly Hills, which is a dedicated development company, or Red Rock, which is an operating company with a very proven track record as a developer, As John pointed out, a $9,000,000,000 development track record We're very confident in their ability to manage the variability associated with tariffs. And in particular get in front of them. And David, has been very close to Cain as it's gone through the planning and costing of its project. I don't know if you want any color on how resourceful and anticipatory they have been when it comes to the whole tariff issue. They're obviously understanding the magnitude of what they're building getting ahead of the tariffs as best as they as best as they possibly can. Even developing hedging strategies around being a little bit kind of groundbreaking around hedging potential future purchases around raw materials. But knowing that they have the right contingency and the right development experience in place to ultimately get this built gives us comfort.

Great. Thanks so much. Appreciate the color.

Thank you. The next question comes from Anthony Paolone from JPMorgan.

Great. Thanks. Good morning. Was wondering if you could talk about what the pipeline has looked like lately in the face of just the macro volatility and whether there have been any in the types of things that you're seeing types of deals that folks want to do or don't want to do, geography, so forth?

Yeah. I'll I'll turn it over to John, and I'm only here Tony. But, you know, I I I I feel a little bit like we're living in Groundhog Day because I think it feeds we've been talking about volatility for a while now.

And one could say, VICI, are you ever gonna stop talking about volatility? But it seems to have been a reality of our life now for at least a couple of years. And I think we would be foolhardy to to have a house view at VICI that it's going to die down anytime soon. It certainly affects I think, on a most fundamental level, Tony, it certainly affects animal spirits around M and A and the growth ambitions that usually drive m and a. I would say across the gaming spectrum and and narrowly and the experience spectrum more broadly, these volatile conditions and the uncertainty around both economic conditions and capital financing conditions have somewhat diminished animal spirits around growth and growth by operators is we believe, the biggest driver of the demand for our kind of capital and the role our capital can play in operators either developing new assets or through M and A growing their store count. And having summarized of the general conditions, I'll turn it over to John for more specific color.

Well, Tony, Ed answered that very well. Really quarter to quarter things don't change that quickly in the spaces that we look at. As my opening remarks talked a lot about relationship based approach, And my colleagues are always tired of me saying, You don't do a deal at the first lunch. So we continue to spend time with operators not only in gaming but in other forms of experiential We educate them on how our capital can work And we continue to see if there's where we can be valuable during this time ensuring that it's accretive for us and valuable to them.

Got it.

And then just one follow-up on the guidance. How much in committed capital for various projects and loans, etcetera? Is not in the guide because there's not a draw schedule. Just wondering like how much like you kind of have, but just didn't put in at this point.

The guidance, Tony, it's about $130,000,000 of committed capital. I'd have to get back to on what's outside of that. I just want to know what's and that comprises finishing off Great Wolf Northeast, Homefield, Kalahari starting up as well as obviously the North Fork. Investment that we just announced.

Okay, good. I was going say it that way as well. Thanks.

Yeah. I think, Tony, it'd be fair to say a lot but we will. We will get back to you with a more precise answer than a lot.

Is outside.

Next question comes from Caitlin Burrows from Goldman Sachs. Caitlin, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hi.

First, maybe a follow-up on that last question and congrats on the new relationship with Red Rocks. Can you give any details on why you think they came to you for development funding? I think you mentioned that it is part of a larger syndicate. And then do you have any insight on how the timing of the funding could play out, which again, I feel like is what just was asked and maybe the answer is no, but confirming.

Caitlin, it's John. I'll start and then turn it over to David. That seems the rhythm of this call right now. But look, we have we have followed with great respect, I guess, of the Red Rock since we started the company, before my time when I was a former casino operator for twenty three years. I've watched Red Rock and watched what they they've operated and really watched what they've developed. So then I started the company, back in 2017. He asked me the companies that I had great respect with, and one of them was obviously Red Rocks and went out and started to be build a relationship. It has started that far back and there just hadn't been any opportunity for us to work together. And so, as they as we talked through the years about this opportunity coming to them developing this opportunity, we obviously were in the loop from the start and had a good conversation we're excited to be a part of it. And then Caitlin, in terms of just the funding cadence, this is a construction draw schedule. You know, we put out an initial 75,000,000 upon closing, but it will a little bit more regular cadence between now and as John said, '26 when it opens up.

So we're excited about the ability to deploy capital on a consistent monthly basis.

And I will just add, Caitlin, that for those who don't follow gaming, REIT analysts and our REIT investors, To understand Red Rock, you really need to experience moreover the quality of what they build and the quality of their operation I I think, John, it would be fair to say it is strip level quality. Even when it is off strip as most of their assets as all of their assets are. And if you were in Las Vegas, think we'd highly encourage you to visit their assets like the the Red Rock sort of anchor, in Summerlin or their new asset in Durango, which is as John says, very comparable to what you can expect them to be building with their partners in North Fork.

Got it. And I know that there's limited detail you guys can give us on future, but I know that when you guys establish these relationships, it's not with the intent of doing a single deal. So, considering that and all the development Red Rock has done in the past, I'm wondering how you think about that future opportunity with them. You thinking it would be more development? Are there sale leaseback opportunities? Something else?

Okay, Glenn. There right now, there's no other opportunities. It's a one one transaction with them. I think the question you're asking is in in the future, if Red Rock was growing their business would we be interested in helping them grow in a variety of ways, whether it was sell the real estate, whether it was another opportunity to develop. The answer is absolutely yes for the right opportunity. And obviously, it's got to be accretive for us and work for them. But I hope you hear from our remarks, we have tremendous respect for they run their company, how they develop their projects. How they build partnerships with tribal nations, We really like all of that. But it's to be clear, this is one opportunity and only one opportunity today, but we would hope or we would love the opportunity in the future, but no commitments.

Got it. Thanks.

The next question comes from Rich Hightower from Barclays. Rich, please go ahead. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking the question here. Just maybe a little more of the nuts and bolts on the tribal side. And the deal with Red Rock. But just just to be clear, Red Rock's the borrower. The collateral package that VICI would have an interest in, it sounds like has really nothing to do with the land itself, but it really would be just the construction that sits on top of the land. Just just help me understand kinda what what that is and and, you know, a little more about the security of anything, you know, might ever go wrong. And, obviously, you know, it doesn't sound like it ever would, but, just help us understand that. And then, you know, secondly, it does sound like tribal lending is is this much bigger opportunity than maybe any of us sort of appreciated sitting here twelve months ago? And just help us understand how that landscape is evolved and changed, you know, now that [indiscernible] Deal. You guys have now have announced, you know, this this deal. You know, just help us understand the moving parts there as well, please.

Yeah. Rich, it's David. I'll start and then I'll just chime in. The borrower is actually the tribe. [indiscernible] Red Rock's developer and providing the construction gear or completion guarantee to get the project built, the oversight, the expertise that we talked about that they bring to the table. And so the collateral is the building, but obviously, we talked about in this call and other calls, taking that back is very difficult given the fact that the tribe is the only entity that has the right to operate gaming. So we've got full faith and conviction around Red Rock and their buildings fact that they're putting up their they've put up their balance sheet to provide the initial funding. This loan will complete the funding and as I mentioned, there's a whole host of money center banks that have come into the syndicate to to provide the financing for the development here. [indiscernible] Just one other thing to add. This is Samantha. With respect to the collateral package, we also have a first priority security interest in the future cash flows and revenues. From the gaming activities. And and that's inclusive of the gaming, and that's an important part point.

And also when we think about lending, tribal lending versus a sale leaseback, it's also thinking about the LTV or the LTC, which is different than your percentage interest when you're looking at what your collateral when you already own the building can operate. And so we view them as different when you think about where we are on the risk spectrum. I think when you're Okay. So when you reduce it all to a sec Go ahead. Sorry.

Yeah.

Yeah. I was just gonna say when you reduce it all Go ahead. Go ahead. Yeah. This is all this is all dependent on it, ultimately, operating successfully. And, again, the involvement of a proven operating partner, proven across the gaming landscape broadly, but specifically in tribal gaming and specifically in California gives us a lot of comfort. And I really would not minimize the importance of that completion guarantee. Either from Red Rock Okay. And then I guess the second part of the question just, you know, maybe more broadly about the tribal lending landscape and you know, may maybe help me understand too if if there were other traditional lending sources for a lot of these projects historically. You know, what has other than pricing, you know, maybe there's more to it. You know, what has caused the REITs you know, to to kinda have an opening in the way that we've seen in the last, know, few quarters here. It's definitely something we continue to look at, Rich. I I'm not here to say that there's you know, 20 opportunities out there, but it's definitely part of our business that we're studying, better understanding, as Ed just walked you through, not all deals are the same.

Not all deals have an operator like Red Rocks running it. It's something that we're looking at. I don't think you should say this is something the REITs have been looking at just the past two quarters. I think what you should know is, at least from a VICI perspective, these are things that we study for years. And it doesn't mean that it shows up in and we looked at it for three months. So this is something we've been studying for years. There have been others that have been involved in this type of lending. Over the decades that travel casinos have been developed all over. The United States. But it's something that this particular opportunity was one we were quite excited about And obviously, we announced that investment here over the past coming days.

Yeah. And just to kind of reiterate what I said to Tony, Rich, Growth creates a demand for capital. And, you know, as you look across The US gaming landscape, California is still a relatively young gaming jurisdiction. I think John has been in California now for maybe twenty odd years, and it is only tribal gaming in California. So there is still white space on the California gaming map Tribes are are gaining the opportunities to put new stores onto that map. And that's creating a need for capital that you don't necessarily see everywhere else the country at this point.

Alright. Appreciate the color, guys. Thank you.

The next question comes from Smedes Rose from Citi. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Thanks. It's Nick Joseph here with Smedes. I was hoping you could touch on your expectations for the Century Casino lease I know it's a small part of rents overall, but do you feel comfortable that the recent CapEx investments at those properties will help improve coverage? Yeah. Good very very good question. And I I'm smiling here because we had part of our organization in the asset actually two days ago, visiting the assets, visiting with the teams, looking at the new construction, looking at the new casino, that was put in place and talking about the great numbers that are coming out of there. In my opening remarks, one of the things that's great about VICI and the way that we're structured is that we have constant communication with our operator We also get for the majority of our operators, we get monthly results. We have conversations with them about how the business is working, how they think about capital, So Century is one of them. But you'd expect or I think you'd hope that we're having conversations with our large operators in MGM or or Hard Rock or or others that that we have assets with. But it is exciting to see the new development we helped finance really take off down in the Missouri properties, and we'll continue to see if there's ways over time we can put money to work with with Century as well as with some of our other operators.

Thanks. And then I guess just one other partner you didn't mention there was Caesars and obviously we've received some questions [indiscernible] regional casinos and I know there's ten years remaining on that lease.

But how are those conversations going if they are, just given current coverage. [indiscernible] good to hear from you. The I wouldn't say there's any burning conversations of time between us and Caesars, around regional property performance. We obviously continue to be pleased at the magnitude of capital that Caesars has been and continues invest in our assets both on the Las Vegas Strip and in the regions. You are obviously seeing we're seeing the benefits in real time of the $300 odd million they put into New Orleans, John. Obviously, couple of hundred million into City. The recent announcement of $160,000,000 of their capital into Lake Tahoe, we think is pretty strong evidence of Caesars willingness to continue to invest in these properties and drive this kind of performance that ultimately should lead to rent coverage we're all happy and satisfied with. Thank you very much.

The next question comes from David Katz at Jefferies. David, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hi, morning. Thanks for taking my questions. So with respect to the Red Rock arrangement, I don't know if you're able to sort of characterize what the capital structure you know, of that property is, you know, setting up to be. And or, you know, any comments around [indiscernible] You know, on the loan that [indiscernible] may be helpful. And as a part of that, bigger picture, how you look at you know, opportunities and the the risk profile of them you know, relative to sort of where you were one, two, three years ago? Is it still the same? And is there some progression in kind of risk profile as you look at stuff today? Thanks.

Right in there, David. Good to talk to you. Let me [indiscernible] start with the loan, you know, As we've talked about the $725,000,000 total facility comprised of two term loans. Term loan A and term loan B are blended all in yield is so far right around seven. That includes some some incremental fees and whatnot on the capital that we committed. The $725,000,000 of wage out term loan will be be the development funding for the project. And then we are comfortable with the capitalization and the support that's coming from Red Rock and their expertise around getting this open and really the location and you look the competing product in the area, it's far, far inferior to what the Durango esque style facility that will be built here in Madera, California. And in terms of our risk appetite, I think we continue we talk about at VICI, we have a table of learning. We continue to learn internally and study different opportunities. And as we've noted on this call, we've looked at tribal for for years and part with the right operator in the right location and doing things with the right guarantees and right structure, we get comfortable with that and the ultimate return that we earn on that capital that we deploy.

So I think spend a lot of time ensuring that we put our capital out in ways that make sense And as Ed talked about protecting the dividend, but also ensuring that we get that capital repaid.

Yes. And I'll just add, David, that you know, in investing in any category, but in particular in in our investment category, General principles only take you so far And so any kind of general principles we might hold about tribal gaming are just not that useful in us ultimately making decisions. And we make investment decisions based entirely on specifics, not generalities. And the specifics of this investment opportunity were very compelling. The involvement of a highly proven, highly successful developer and also happens to be a highly proven and highly successful operator. Those specifics were incredibly important to making this particular decision. And any future decisions we might make whether around tribal or commercial will always again be made on the specifics.

Thank you very much.

Next question comes from Haendel St. Just from Mizuho. Line is now open. Please go ahead.

Hey guys, good morning. I guess I'm I'm curious if we should also be reading into the Red Rock construction loan that perhaps you'd be more comfortable being a construction lender more broadly under the right circumstances and with the right So perhaps can you talk about your appetite in doing more of that type of loan activity going forward and also some thoughts on the underwriting of the loan and the required return, that you have there. Thanks.

Yes. I would really reiterate, Hettenel, what I just said, in response to David that it it would be it will always be highly specific. We do not have a general strategy around construction funding. We have a we have a general strategy around relation relationship development and identifying experiential partners we would like to have a relationship with in flow over time. And if helping them finance a development opportunity is the way to start the relationship, we will certainly look at that energetically and yet rigorously. And you can see in both the cane and the Red Rock situations, we are being driven by the opportunity to establish relationships and not really specifically being driven by a desire to become construction financier.

Appreciate that. And maybe a follow-up here just speaking of relationships. Curious if there are any growth opportunities with any of your other partnerships that could be attractive to you here? Thank you.

I didn't hear exactly the but I think that it was are there opportunities to grow with our current set of 13 tenants and eight financing partners the answer I'll give you is I hope so. I think that's always been the way we have talked about this and why we don't have 100 tenants right now. We have 13 and I'm sure over time they'll grow to 14, 15, 16. But part of our strategy that we talked about since we started the company was to find the best in the business, and help them grow over time while also adding new tenants as well as new financing partners to grow the business accretively. Thank you. The next question comes from Daniel Guillaume from Capital One Securities. Daniel, please go ahead. Your line is open.

Hi, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. The March and April trend commentary for your big public partners in Las Vegas has been very positive this earnings. Can you give us a sense if you're hearing the same things from the non public partners on the strip? So I guess the Venetian Complex and then maybe Fountain Blue in the investment book.

Yes. We're very excited. Nice to talk to you Daniel. We were very excited Obviously we see some of the numbers before they become become public at times and we're very excited to see Las Vegas continue to be quite successful and and growing as you heard in my comments We like Vegas so much because there's so many different what I call cash registers for and reasons for consumers to come to the city. MGM and Caesars were talking about their business. The Venetian has a robust business. I was just out there myself and I know Ed was as well. Enjoying our time at the Sphere and watching how that brings in a whole bunch of new consumers to not only the Venetian, but really brings a new consumer set to Las Vegas, which is great to have a city like that. So Daniel, the answer is Vegas seems to be continuing to have have a very good run Part of that the credit goes to the operators because they continue to find different ways to attract not only their existing customers, but new customers and there's no better group than the group that runs Las Vegas. So, we're excited to be so invested there and owning those assets because I know that the people who do will continue to find ways no matter what the economic conditions are to grow their business.

Great. Thank you. That's really helpful. I did like your point on the potential trade down more people to Las Vegas. And then on the second one, so you all have a wide range of partners. I think you mentioned 21, both big and small with very different risk characteristics. And given the confusing macro, can you just talk about the team's approach to risk and if there's a formal risk process in place to to flag and work through any issues that that you see developing over the next few years.

Thank you. Yeah. Hey, Dan. It's Gabe Wachman here. I can take the first part of that question. And others can can weigh in as well. But since we founded the company in 2017, we've had pretty rigorous risk management process. We meet as a management team every quarter. There's two separate meetings. One is to go over the performance of our tenants and the lease investments. And there's a separate meeting to go over our borrowers and the performance of our loan investment. So as a management team, a lot of visibility into the performance of our investments and a lot of discussions and rigorous underwriting and monitoring.

Great. Appreciate it. Next question comes from Ronald Camden from [indiscernible] Question is from Ronald Camden at Morgan Stanley. Ronald, please go ahead.

Hey, good morning. This is Jenny on for Ron. Thanks for taking my question. Think my first one is regarding the Caesars Forum Commission Center call options you have later this year. What is your latest thoughts on the deal? And if you would like to exercise on that?

Yeah. Very good question. That call becomes live here later in the fall. It's September of this year. I don't have the exact date, but I believe it's late September of this year. Think your question is do we like the asset Is it a beautiful asset? How is it performing? It is something that we'll continue to evaluate as that time comes. Caesars built just a beautiful place and is using it effectively as my last comments of driving new business and new meeting business there. So we are aware of that opportunity. We've got a window that's quite wide and we'll study the opportunity that when when it comes.

Perfect. Have another one regarding the yeah.

Yeah. Go ahead, please.

Yeah. Jenny, I'll just speak going to say before you ask your second question, that our our decision making is always guided by solving for total return. As I as I spoke of in my opening remarks, And as we look at the building blocks of our total return, those building blocks are dividend yield, same store NOI, levered into AFFO per share, and then external growth.

And we we try to optimize our timing around any kind of opportunities like that such that we are solving fundamentally for sustained and sustainable superior total return. So that really is the calculus that guides so much of our decision making around not only what we invest in, but when we invest in it.

Makes sense. I think I think the second one is regarding the strategic relationship with Kane International. I'm just curious if there's any incremental conversation this quarter with them, like what other kind of experiential investment opportunities are you looking to pursue together? Beyond the Beverly Hills project?

Yeah. Well, we there they are involved in a lot of experiential categories. We are in fundamentally interested in, and I will just say one example, and that is their investment in a facility called The Saint James which is just outside of Washington DC and is very much like Chelsea Piers. They've been very open and energetic about their growth ambitions for the St. James as ultimately a network of facilities across the country. And we've enjoyed very much the conversations we've had. I must have a very preliminary basis on how we might ever be of service to them in growing that network.

Okay. Sounds great. Thanks so much.

The next question comes from Max Masso at CBRE. Max, please go ahead. Your line is open.

Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Velly recently had a deal with Star in Australia guys have interest in participating in that or maybe in Australia more broadly?

If you've been following us for a while, David and I spent some time down under, about two years ago.

Visiting Australia and New Zealand and understanding the landscape Obviously, the market in Australia, particularly where the assets are for the Star has gone through radical change. Not only structure balance sheet structural issues, but the regulators and the regulations of those business have changed and have had a real put a real hurt, guess, is the best way on the business right now. I think your question was, would we be involved in an opportunity with the Star in laws in Australia? The answer is no.

Okay.

I would say just, Max, to add Yep.

Sorry, Max. I was just gonna add that really one key predicate one key predicate for any investment we ever make is having as high a degree of visibility and confidence around what the future earnings profile of a given asset will be. And right now, given the turmoil in the regulatory landscape and its impact on the economic performance of gaming assets in Australia it is very difficult to have any visibility or confidence around what kind of money these assets are going to make over the longer term.

Understood. Thank you for that. And maybe zoom out and take it at a higher level. Other than economics and accretion, could you talk about some of your top strategic priorities in your current opportunity set, whether that might be tenant diversification, geographic diversification, or maybe something else You know, I would say there's really a a couple of key result areas we really focus on. I've already talked about obviously our ceaseless dedication to building total return. On a sustained and sustainable basis, but as well it's obviously doing what we can all we can to weatherproof the business as best we can. No businesses obviously ever absolutely weatherproof.

But I am so so glad and so proud of the work David and the team did, for example, in getting the refinancing done when we got it done. And against this backdrop of volatility and low visibility, a paramount focus of management will continue to be being highly anticipatory of what is potentially coming and being as ready for it as we can and protecting our capital and the cost of our capital.

Great. Thank you very much.

Our final question today comes from Alex Fagan from Baird. Line is now open. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning.

Thanks for taking my question. Just one quick one for me. There was some news regarding New York gaming I'm curious what your latest thoughts on the New York gaming [indiscernible] And what VICI will be doing from now till a decision is ultimately made?

Yeah. Exciting exciting times and some of the news that's out there. By no means am I going to predict when a license will be granted or the three licenses will be granted. It does seem like there's momentum moving for the RF to be put in by the June, early July. I think you know that one of the bidders is going to be MGM at the site that we own the real estate in the buildings. There are other very exciting opportunities that are in the news that could win one of the license group. But we're are standing by, better understanding the circumstances, Obviously, we're a big fan of the MGM bid simply because the asset is one that is ours and we would hope that we would help our current tenant in MGM grow that should they win one of the three licenses. So like you, we'll continue to watch. And continue to read the paper and better understand as it gets closer.

Got it. That's it for me.

Thanks.

And I'll hand the floor back to Ed for some closing comments.

Yeah. So we know that all of you, whether you're analysts or investors, are in incredibly stretched thin right now given the volume that company is reporting. So we cannot express deeply enough our thanks for your time and attention this morning. And your continued support. And bye for now.

This concludes today's call. You very much for your attendance. You may now disconnect your lines.