Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the VICI Properties First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference call is being recorded today, April 30, 2026. I will now turn the call over to Samantha Gallagher, General Counsel with VICI Properties.

Thank you, operator, and good morning. Everyone should have access to the company's first quarter 2026 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, 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 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 to the most directly comparable GAAP measure is available on our website in our first quarter 2026 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 Pitoniak, Chief Executive Officer; John Payne, President and Chief Operating Officer; David Kieske, Chief Financial Officer; Gabe Wasserman, Managing Director of Business Development and V.E.C.S.; Jeremy Waxman, Chief Accounting Officer; and Moira McCloskey, 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.

Thanks, Samantha, and good morning, everyone. This morning, you'll hear from John Payne on our recent investment in growth activities, and you'll hear from David Kieske on our financial results and updated 2026 earnings guidance. To start, I'd like to thank the members of the VICI team for their continued hard work. Their contributions to the business, including their efforts around the deal activity we announced this quarter are essential to our success and ability to deliver value to our owners.

Today, I'd like to share with you in abbreviated form, the thoughts I shared in my recent annual report letter. I'll begin with this. The leaders of any business should always have a clear and cogent answer to the question what business are you in? At VICI, the high-level answer to that question is, we are in the business of sourcing, allocating and stewarding capital, invested accretively in experiential real estate of enduring value.

That could be the answer offered by any REIT or Real Estate Investment Management firm in America, save for one word, experiential. The 28 other REITs currently in the S&P 500, all have their own distinct adjectives in front of real estate, whether those modifiers be logistics, data center, office, residential, lodging, retail, self-storage, et cetera. Our property types may differ, but we all wrestle with the key real estate investment attribute of relevance and on the opposite end of the investment spectrum, obsolescence. The more relevant the real estate is to its intended end users, the greater the likelihood that the income and value of that real estate will be sustained and potentially grow.

The relevance of a property is ultimately determined by the people who use the real estate for its intended purpose. And for that reason, I believe the real estate investment insights are ultimately cultural insights. To evaluate the current and moreover future relevance and value of real estate requires the development of insights and forecasts into how people will live, work, play, heal, gather, create and otherwise manifest the experience of living their lives now and over the lifespan of the investment. As I noted a moment ago, at VICI, we are strategically and organizationally committed to investing in experiential real estate, and that commitment is anchored in the insights and forecasts we've developed around the experience economy during our first 8 years as a company.

Spending trends support our thesis. According to Mastercard, during the period of 2019 to 2023, when the COVID pandemic led to a spike in goods purchases, global spending on experiences nonetheless rose 65%, while spending on things only increased 12% over the same period, a more than 5:1 growth ratio favoring experiences. This momentum has persisted after the post-COVID boom. TD Cowen's January 2026 report on the experience economy showed that experience-related services like gaming, accommodation, sports, air travel and other leisure-related spend have seen an average annual growth rate of 5.2% from 2023 to 2025 compared to average annual total personal consumption expenditure or PCE growth of 2.9% during the same period.

The durability and persistence of this trend across multiple economic cycles, demographic shifts and technological innovations supports the thesis that preference for experiences is not transient and instead signifies a deeper and enduring secular change. At VICI, we balance our secular focus with sharp attention to what's going on here and now. At any given time, we at VICI believe we are responsible for managing our relationship and exposure to 3 key dimensions of impact: secular trend impact, cyclical trend impact, idiosyncratic impact unique to VICI. Let me take each one of these dimensions of impact in reverse order.

By idiosyncratic impact, I mean developments unique to VICI rising out of our specific business conditions. These can be issues or situations that generally don't have secular or cyclical causes beyond our management control. These are issues that we can and must address through our own management actions. By cyclical trend impact, I mean cyclical developments and trends in our economy and our society.

These are fluctuations that are likely beyond our or any management team's control, but in VICI's business model, our revenue and income streams as a net lease REIT are generally not highly subject to material cyclical fluctuation. We also strive to invest in businesses and sectors that have lower-than-average cyclicality to mitigate cyclical risk. By secular trend impact, as I noted above, I mean material and impactful changes in the ways in which people are living, working, playing, healing, gathering, creating and otherwise manifesting the experience of living their lives. As with cyclical trends, our management -- well, sorry, let me just start that one over again.

As with cyclical trends, secular change is beyond our management control. But what is within our control is identifying, understanding and preparing for those changes and consequently developing and executing responses that enable us to capitalize on positive developments and manage our risk exposure to potential negative developments in and around the experiential economy. As investors in large-scale, long-duration real estate, we work hard to be right about the secular. If you get secular trends wrong as a real estate investor, it's hard to overcome the value-eroding impact of negative secular impact.

If you get secular trends right, you have more management capacity to seize opportunity and manage cyclical and idiosyncratic developments. The VICI executive team was in Las Vegas 2 weeks ago, and around every corner, we witnessed the secular power of experiences. Secular is long term. Getting secular right represents long-term competitive advantage.

And with that, I'll turn it over to John.

Thanks, Ed, and good morning to everyone. VICI had an active first quarter with approximately $1.2 billion in new capital commitments. The last 2 quarters, quarter 4 of 2025 and quarter 1, 2026, represent the first consecutive quarters during which VICI has announced more than $1 billion in new capital commitments sequentially in the company's history. This quarter, we announced an expansion of our long-term strategic relationship with Cain and Eldridge Industries by providing a $1.5 billion mezzanine loan as part of the construction financing for the One Beverly Hills development project.

The mezzanine loan represents a $1.05 billion incremental commitment beyond our previously announced $450 million investment. Construction on the development commenced in 2024 with vertical works beginning in fall 2025 and phased delivery is scheduled to commence in 2028. VICI also had international gaming real estate activity during the quarter. VICI announced the pending $144 million acquisition of 4 real estate assets located in Alberta, Canada at an 8% cap rate in connection with Pure Casino Entertainment's pending take-private acquisition of Gamehost. This transaction is emblematic of VICI's ability to help our existing tenants execute on their growth strategies through the monetization of their real estate.

Having worked alongside with IGP and PURE for the last few years, we've appreciated their ability to operate and grow a very effective gaming platform. Subsequent to quarter end, we entered into a new lease agreement with Clairvest in connection with the closing of Clairvest's acquisition of Northfield Park in Ohio from MGM. This transaction added VICI's 14th tenant, further diversifying our tenant roster, which has always been a core portfolio management objective since VICI's inception, and there was no change to total rent collected by VICI. Last week, we also announced that all gaming regulatory and shareholder approvals have been met for the previously announced $1.16 billion Golden transaction, we expect this acquisition to close today.

This transaction reflects VICI's strategic entry into real estate ownership in the Las Vegas locals market, which has deeply rooted loyal customer bases and attractive demographic tailwinds, and it highlights our ability to transform relationship building efforts into constructive growth for our shareholders. To continue on the thread of Las Vegas, operator reports [ this week ] have demonstrated improvements in quarter 1. There was strong convention-related activity during the quarter with about 140,000 CONEXPO-CON/AGG attendees in March, and operators are continuing to address the value perception issue with MGM and Caesars offering promotional deals catering to value-oriented consumers.

There are plenty of demand drivers, particularly around professional sports and entertainment that continue to make Las Vegas a draw for a wide range of consumers for the foreseeable future. Construction on A's Stadium has started. The NBA has voted to pursue a Las Vegas franchise and the annual spring WWE event brought over 100,000 attendees to the city a few weeks ago. Furthermore, our tenants continue to invest heavily in the assets we own on the Strip from MGM Grand's $300 million room remodel to the OMNIA Dayclub development out front of Caesars Palace to the renovation of the Mirage and the building of the absolutely incredible Hard Rock Guitar Tower.

We acknowledge the emerging changes that exist in the gaming space from iGaming's expanding presence to the growing, though largely unregulated prediction markets to the stabilization of online sports betting, but we do believe that brick-and-mortar gaming assets in the right markets operated by the right operators will retain sticky consumer bases and continue to perform well. At the same time, we will continue our broader long-term strategy that includes diversifying our tenant base, continuing to invest in other experiential real estate and managing a portfolio set to benefit from the secular trends Ed mentioned in his opening remarks.

Now I will turn the call over to David, who will discuss our financial results and guidance. David?

Thanks, John. I want to start with a few numbers that I believe best capture what VICI's business has been designed to do. In the first quarter, on a year-over-year basis, we grew AFFO per share by 4.5% while only increasing our share count by roughly 1%. This sustainable, efficient growth is made possible by the fact that our business generates about $650 million of free cash flow annually, and we have been able to deploy that free cash flow into incremental investments without having to dilute our shareholders.

Furthermore, VICI has an AFFO payout ratio of approximately 75%. We are focused on maintaining our ability to continue to grow our dividend, which we have done every single year since we went public in 2018, posting a peer-leading 8-year dividend growth CAGR of 7% and intend to continue to protect the sanctity of the dividend as we strive to continue to grow the business, both organically and externally. VICI's growth is supported by a strong balance sheet. Our total debt is $17.1 billion, and our net debt to annualized first quarter adjusted EBITDA is approximately 5x at the low end of our target leverage range of 5 to 5.5x.

We have a weighted average interest rate of 4.46% as adjusted to account for our hedge activity and a weighted average 5.7 years to maturity. As of March 31, 2026, we have approximately $3.1 billion in total liquidity comprised of approximately $480 million in cash and cash equivalents, $242 million in estimated proceeds available under our outstanding forwards and $2.4 billion of availability under our revolving credit facility. I would note that subsequent to quarter end, we settled all remaining outstanding forward equity to partially fund the Golden transaction, which, again, as John mentioned, is closing today.

Turning to guidance. We are raising AFFO guidance for 2026 in both absolute dollars as well as on a per share basis. AFFO for the year ending December 31, 2026, is expected to be between $2.665 billion and $2.695 billion or between $2.44 and $2.47 per diluted common share. As a reminder, our guidance does not include the impact on operating results from any pending acquisitions without announced expected closing dates, possible future acquisitions or dispositions and related capital markets activity or other nonrecurring transactions or items.

With that, operator, please open the line for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Barry Jonas with Truist.

Your loan book is expanding again. Curious how you think about the right mix there versus traditional sale-leaseback.

Yes, Barry, it's a strategic tool that we have in our toolkit to develop long-term relationships. And as you know, some of the loans have direct pathways to real estate ownership and others have the ability to learn about sectors that we would like to own the real estate in over time. And we feel pretty good about where the size is right now. We're at high single digits in terms of percent of total assets, and we're very mindful of the fact that these loans will get repaid over time, but we've developed very good relationships with the sponsors and the operators and the owners of these businesses that there may be future opportunities to deploy these proceeds either into real estate or incremental credit opportunities going forward.

That's really helpful. And then just for a follow-up, I just broadly asked what the pipeline is looking like right now. And if you could maybe talk about how the mix between gaming and nongaming is looking, that would be helpful.

Barry, not much different than the past couple of quarters. We continue to spend quite a bit of time on the casino side. We obviously have announced over the past couple of quarters some deals with some new tenants that we're very excited about, not only the deals we have with them, but could we potentially grow in the future. So we continue to look at opportunities on the casino space.

We also are spending time in the same categories that we've talked to you about, whether that's unique attractions, university and professional sports with surrounding developments, golf and pilgrimage resorts and unique opportunities. The other thing we are spending some time with our current tenants. Are there new amenities at our existing properties that we can continue to build out with them on a larger scale. So I guess all 3 pillars are active at this time.

I couldn't give you a percentage of where I'm spending my time, but I'd say all 3 we're spending time on.

Our next question comes from Caitlin Burrows with Goldman Sachs.

Maybe just a follow-up on that last point. You mentioned that new amenities at existing properties is one of your opportunities. I know when you guys initially announced the Partner Property Growth Fund opportunity with the Venetian like 2 years ago. Now, there was a potential incremental $300 million of funding, which I feel like we haven't talked about in a while.

So is that not happening, potentially happening? Or what can we expect there?

Caitlin, I'll start and others chime in. Good to hear from you today. It's still potentially happening. If anybody has walked The Venetian over the last couple of years, you can see the transformation that the team has done, run by Patrick Nichols and [ Rob Rimmer ] and all the folks that go to work very hard every day within the proverbial 4 walls of that asset, where they put in new assets, room remodels, updated the convention space -- initially used $400 million of our capital, and we're in constant dialogue about their future capital plans and what they might continue to add to that asset to continue to grow the revenue base there.

There are probably some other opportunities with tenants as well that we continue to speak about. We're just not prepared to talk about that today.

Okay. So as it relates to the Venetian one, it sounds like just wait and see over the next 6 months or so to see if that materializes or not.

Yes, I think that's right, Caitlin. And look, our capital is flexible, and there is an outside date on it. But if they want to go longer, we'd be willing to go longer with that.

Yes, makes sense. Okay. And then in the earnings release, you mentioned that you guys entered into forward interest rate swaps which I guess is a little surprised since you don't have that much floating rate debt. So I was wondering if you could just go through the thinking there and under what circumstance do you expect to use that?

Yes. No, you're right, Caitlin. We don't have any floating rate debt other than our revolver. But these are forward starting interest rate swaps to start to leg our way into an interest rate hedge portfolio ahead of our upcoming refis, which we have maturities in September, December this year and then turning the corner into February 2027. So in the interest rate market, you can either do forward starting swaps or treasury locks, and we've started to build up a portfolio of forward starting swaps to lock in the base rate.

Our next question comes from Smedes Rose with Citi.

It's Nick Joseph here for Smedes. Curious what feedback you're getting from tenants just on underlying demand trends given the relatively fluid macro outlook.

Yes. Well, we've watched, as you have, many of our tenants who are in the public markets announcing about the consumer and their results. And you can see that in their results. Obviously, the regional markets have performed, steady is the best way I will describe it.

Las Vegas is going through a transition. You can see that they turned the corner from some of the slowness that they had. They're making adjustments to their business models, which you've heard from us for over 8 years. These are the best operators in the world.

They know how to adjust their businesses accordingly, and they're doing it right now. They'll also get the bumps over the coming years of new attractions coming to Las Vegas, which always has benefited that market. So as new assets open up, as new product open up, trial will open up. So they're going to continue to work with it.

They can price their business accordingly a little bit faster in the regional markets than they can in the Las Vegas markets, but you can see from the results that are quite good.

And then just hoping you could give an update on the Caesars regional leases, how those assets are performing right now. And then obviously, there's been some press reports about Caesars, any potential impact if there is a privatization there?

Yes. Maybe to take those questions in reverse order. Caesars has not confirmed anything and thus, everything that is being talked about is rumors. And as a fundamental practice, we do not comment on rumors.

As concerns Caesars regional trends, you obviously saw their results, which they released on Tuesday. What we are certainly seeing is the benefits of the CapEx that Caesars has very smartly invested in a number of regional assets over the last couple of years, notably places like [ New Orleans ] and now Lake Tahoe. And I think what we're clearly seeing, as I believe the market is seeing as well is the benefits of that CapEx. And I think it's also notable to see the, if you will, narrative reemphasis Caesars is putting on its database.

And it spoke about the importance of its database in relation to its digital strategy during their earnings call on Tuesday. And I think it's key to remember that so much of the database, as John knows way better than I do, so much of that database is generated by the regional spokes in the Caesars hub-and-spoke system.

Our next question comes from Chris Darling with Green Street.

Regarding the Cain-Eldridge relationship, can you speak to your vision for that partnership over time? I find the notion of partnering with a private capital source interesting in terms of furthering your own growth plans, particularly if you may not feel comfortable issuing equity capital at various points in time.

Yes. Good to talk to you, Chris. Yes, what we have learned about Cain and Eldridge over now, I guess, it is -- what is it, 1.5 years or so that we've been partnering with them, almost 2 years, that they have a vision of the world and the experiential economy that's very, very synchronous and aligned with ours. And what we really value in Cain and Eldridge is, frankly, the energy of their animal spirits in terms of identifying and seizing opportunities globally.

And they are obviously an example, Chris, of the power of insurance capital pools at this particular moment in time and at this particular phase of global capital formation. And so very much to your point, we believe that as responsible stewards of VICI's capital, we need to constantly be monitoring the landscape of global capital formation and identifying pools of capital that may be very valuable to our business, the growth of our business, the durability of our business, wherever that capital may come from. And we're certainly not the first to do that. You've certainly seen over the decades, very great REITs like Prologis pursue such a strategy.

I wouldn't say that we're necessarily going to mirror that strategy, but we're certainly going to look to grow with great partners and Cain and Eldridge are certainly an example of that.

That's helpful thoughts. And then maybe just switching gears for a follow-up. With the Golden deal closing today, can you speak to how that team is thinking about growing their business? And specifically, I wonder if there's anything related to new acquisitions, reinvestment into the existing portfolio, anything like that where you can play a role in the near term?

Yes. It's a great question. And one of the things that we're excited about and have been excited about since we started meeting with the Golden team and obviously, as we announced that transaction, we'll close today. We will begin that work -- I mean the transaction closes today.

We'll begin that work on areas where we can grow together. I do know the team there, is anxious to continue to look at unique opportunities to see their portfolio be diversified and our capital can help them in many ways, to your point on not only we're looking together at acquiring new assets, but how can our capital help them at their existing assets, adding amenities that can attract new consumers and grow their EBITDA. We've had initial talks on those, and we'll continue now that the deal is closed to really refine those over the coming months and years. Great question.

Our next question comes from John DeCree with CBRE Capital Advisors.

Ed, you just kind of talked about attractive pools of capital, I guess, kind of in the equity sense, maybe Ed or David. Curious if you thought about other pools of capital or sourcing debt capital, international financing sources. I noticed the financing in Canada for the PURE gaming deal. Obviously, base rates are a bit lower there.

One of your tenants went for the yen carry trade. They obviously have a project, MGM, in Japan. But curious if there's opportunities for more creative debt capital uses to kind of tick down your overall cost of capital.

Yes, John, always good to hear from you. I hope you're well. It's David. It's a great question and one that we've talked about since our inception.

You go back to the beginning of VICI, and we kind of had a very unnatural balance sheet for a REIT, and we worked hard to transition that balance sheet into a more standard and obviously, investment-grade balance sheet. And we've always been trying to be forward-looking around where can we source alternative forms of both debt capital as well as potentially equity capital at some point in the future. And you're spot on with our recent acquisitions in Canada. There could be an opportunity to issue debt up there.

We've on and off looked at things overseas and looked at the various financing markets and other triple net lease REITs and even other REITs to take advantage of, whether it be euro or sterling denominated. And then we watch what other net lease REITs have recently done, some of the larger REITs in terms of accessing private capital. So it's being -- as Ed said, being a good steward of capital and finding the most attractive pools, partners and opportunities for us is something we work hard at every day.

John, in your prepared remarks, you've obviously highlighted the increase in investment activity in the last couple of quarters. I'm not sure if you want to take this one or Ed. But is there anything you'd attribute that kind of success in increased activity? Is it just the kind of stars aligned?

I know these transactions, investments take quite a while to bake, but is there anything changed? Or what would you attribute the kind of ability to get some capital to work kind of the last couple of quarters, if anything?

Yes, John, good to hear from you. I don't think anything has changed. I think you described it very well at the beginning of the question, which was some of these larger deals take time. When we're doing $1 billion deals or acquisitions or credit deal, they take time.

I'm not saying that a $50 million deal does not take time, but we need to be diligent about our evaluation of the deal, and it simply works out -- the timing just works out when we're ready to execute.

And John, I just want to add that I had a little bit of a bet with my colleagues that despite all the activity in Q1, and thank you for recognizing all that activity that somebody would use the term quiet to describe the quarter. And indeed, a couple did. And -- but I've been very proud of myself for not blowing a gasket, correct? Yes.

Our next question comes from Ravi Vaidya with Mizuho.

I wanted to ask a little bit more about the Caesars regional lease here. Are there active negotiations or discussions regarding the lease? Or are we seeing if the recent CapEx improvements in a number of these assets, are we going to -- it seems like they're off to a good start and producing improvements in property-level NOI. Are we kind of in more of a wait-and-see mode regarding how those initiatives kind of flow through and subsequently improve the coverage there?

Yes. So to the first part of your question, Ravi, we're not going to and never will comment on those kinds of discussions with any tenant. And then I'll just reiterate what I said earlier about, yes, the positive evidence in terms of the CapEx paying off and the renewed focus on the part of Caesars to the power of the hub-and-spoke system as powered by the database, so much of which is developed at the regional level, brick-and-mortar location by brick-and-mortar location.

Can I add one thing to that because I do think at times, people judge where you put in capital, that's how you -- that's the only way you grow the business. This is a business that ebbs and flows. It is controlled at times by the database, as Ed described. And the way the business can be -- the incentives can be done and understand the consumer segments and targeting them in different ways often can move the business up and down.

So capital is absolutely an important part of the business, but it's not everything about what drives revenues. There's loyalty, there's service, there's execution, there's offers. And that's important to understand when you look at a complex business like the Casino business.

Got it. That's really helpful color. Just one more here. Can you offer any comments on what's going on with Century Casinos? It seems like they've been under a strategic review for a little while, but I think the coverage is pretty healthy on those assets. Maybe can you discuss maybe the disconnect between corporate credit and strong four-wall credit on that lease?

Ravi, you summed it up well. They've hired a bank and have announced strategic review. The asset-level coverage is very strong. They've got very good execution at the asset level.

And we don't have any inside baseball or anything that we can share about what's going on with the process. I think if you look at their leverage, it may be a little bit higher than some of the others, but they've got a couple of years to deal with that term loan that sits on their balance sheet. And so you'd have to ask that question directly to them on an update what's happening there, but we feel good about the operations and the folks on the ground that go to work every day in our assets.

And we'd like the results of the incremental capital in our property growth fund that we put in with them a few years ago at our Missouri assets. So we spend a lot of time understanding that capital and what it's led to at those businesses.

Our next question comes from Daniel Guglielmo with Capital One Securities.

You all have a lot of leases linked to U.S. CPI in one way or another. Are there any particular months where you're really looking at the 8:30 a.m. report because it will have an outsized impact in the following year?

Yes. Dan, it's Ed. The Caesars lease, the measurement period is July, August, September for a lease that resets every year at November 1. Beyond that, I believe Venetian resets at March. So that measurement period would be January.

Okay. So yes, we follow it, obviously, but -- it's nothing we have any control over. So we just wait until the score gets posted and then we know what's going to happen from there.

Dan, the only thing I'd add, and I saw that in your note this morning, there's nothing assumed in guidance other than the base rates in our escalators.

Okay. Great. And then you all own a few properties in New York and Atlantic City. One of the full commercial casinos opened in New York City recently. Are there any competitive pressures that you all or your gaming operator partners are thinking through there? Any color would be helpful.

Well, it's a great question, most likely should go to our tenants right now. Obviously, the Resorts World that opened in New York with table games happened 2 days ago. But I'm sure the secret shoppers have started from our tenants. It's something we'll continue to monitor and our tenants will continue to monitor and we'll have conversations about that.

Where those customers are coming from? Is it a radius of 20 miles, 15 miles, 50 miles, they'll learn over time. But clearly, something that any new market opens up, whether that's been New York starting to open up, Virginia has opened up in the past. Nebraska has opened up over the previous years, it's something that, one, our tenants are aware of and they continue to track and adjust their plans accordingly [ in their offices. ]

Our next question comes from Ronald Kamdem with Morgan Stanley.

Just my first one on the commentary of experiential real estate in the opening comments. Just thinking about the supplement and some of the sectors that you haven't quite made it in yet, whether it's professional sports or theme parks or anything like that. Just any sort of updated commentary on how you're thinking about that opportunity and if we're getting closer? Or is it sort of still wait and see?

Well, it is hard to tell you exactly the timing of when a deal can be announced. What I would tell you is if you asked me that question a year ago compared to what I know today, it's very different. Our knowledge base, the players in whether it's university and professional sports infrastructure, whether it's the understanding of how surrounding developments around these arenas and new stadiums or universities, how they get done, how they take place, where our capital can be effective, we sure we know a lot more today than we did a year ago. When I can tell you we did put our capital to work or if we put our capital to work, I can't answer on that.

But what I can tell you is we continue to see a large opportunity in professional and collegiate athletics, particularly in sports infrastructure.

Great. That's really helpful. And then if I could just go back to the Cain-Eldridge, just a nonbinding sort of agreement. You don't often see sort of these nonbinding agreements and so forth. I guess just a little bit more color around there. Is it sort of just the messaging that there's a partnership happening, like why not do something a little bit more binding?

Well, it'd be hard to do anything binding without a very clear sense of what the future will bring, to bind each other to -- what we might do together 3 or 4 years from now would seem very unnecessary and very unwise. And I think rather than focusing on whether an agreement is binding or nonbinding, for us, the most important thing is alignment of views, alignment of values, probably most importantly, and establishing a relationship as we have done through One Beverly Hills that's founded on trust and a real desire to understand each other's needs and how we can best serve each other's needs.

Our next question comes from Rich Hightower with Barclays.

I think, David, since you brought it up in one of your earlier answers, I'll assume it's fair game, but just to go back on the idea of VICI sourcing private capital in some form going forward. So I'm assuming that you might have been referring to the Realty Income, I guess, multiple announcements recently. And so if I think about those particular announcements in each case, it sort of solves a very unique problem for both counterparties, whether it's in terms of, obviously, cost of capital to the REIT, but also a particular group of assets, a cadence of deal flow, a particular risk profile and that's sort of well suited for the other counterparty.

And so if I think of that as a template, what does that look like with VICI? What form does that take? And how does that compare to just an institutional partner coming in and buying the stock at what's obviously a very attractive level here?

Yes. Look, Rich, I think your intro to the question hit on a lot of the things that we think about. And one of the -- but taking a half step back, the biggest thing we think about is where our alternative pockets of capital. And obviously, Prologis started it many, many years ago with their Fund business.

Others have emulated that. I'm not saying we're going into the Fund business, but we watch and learn what others do. And there's a whole lot of focus on this high-grade capital solutions or this insurance -- these insurance pockets of capital. And it's something we're studying and learning and seeing if there's might be a use for it, whether it be with existing assets or potentially future acquisitions.

And it's a way to just continue to diversify, right? We want a diversified portfolio of real estate, and it's important to have a diversified pool of capital sources to continue to execute on our growth ambitions over time.

Okay. That does make sense. And I guess maybe to follow up, if I think about your, I guess, regular way deal flow capacity given that we've sort of exhausted the forwards. You've obviously got liquidity in other forms. But just help us put pencil to paper on what maybe your current total acquisition capacity is as the balance sheet stands today?

Yes. Look, we sit at the low end of our leverage range. So we got incremental debt capacity. As I mentioned in my comments, we have $650 million of true free cash flow, and that's after dividends on an annual basis.

And like the stock is at a level that isn't all that attractive to us right now, but we don't feel -- we're not sitting on our hands and John and team, the business development team are hard at work every day sourcing opportunities. The uniqueness about our business is that things take time. And as you've seen, they're lumpy and chunky, but we're confident that we can continue to execute our external growth plans with the sources of capital that we have available today.

I would now like to turn the call back over to Ed Pitoniak for any closing remarks.

Yes. I will just close out by thanking everybody who's on the call today. I recognize it is a very busy day and a very busy earnings season. We appreciate your time and your support, and we look forward to talking to you again in late July.

Thank you. This concludes the conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.