{"id":181878,"date":"2021-08-04T07:46:24","date_gmt":"2021-08-04T14:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=181878"},"modified":"2021-08-04T08:56:11","modified_gmt":"2021-08-04T15:56:11","slug":"vici-buying-mgp-for-17-2-billion-creating-dominant-strip-landlord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vici-buying-mgp-for-17-2-billion-creating-dominant-strip-landlord\/","title":{"rendered":"VICI Paying $17.2B for MGM Growth Properties, Creates Biggest Strip Casino Landlord"},"content":{"rendered":"

VICI Properties (NYSE:VICI) is buying rival MGM Growth Properties (NYSE:MGP) for $17.2 billion in stock. It’s an acquisition creating the dominant owner of Las Vegas Strip casino real estate.<\/p>\n

\"MGP
MGM Grand on the Las Vegas Strip. Owner MGP is being acquired by VICI Properties for $17.2 billion. (Image: Wall Street Journal)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Under the terms of the transaction, VICI assumes $5.7 billion in MGP debt and gets MGM Resorts International’s (NYSE:MGM) $4.4 billion stake in the real estate investment trust (REIT) it spun off in 2016. The casino operator has been paring that investment<\/a> with an eye toward eventually eliminating it entirely. When the deal closes, VICI will have an enterprise value of $45 billion, making it the largest experiential net lease REIT.<\/p>\n

MGP investors will receive 1.366 shares of newly issued VICI equity for each share of MGP they currently own. That values the target at $43 — an almost 16 percent premium to where the stock closed on Aug. 3. MGM Resorts also receives $43 a share for each unit of MGP it owns, and 12 million units \u201cin a newly formed operating partnership of VICI Properties.\u201d That one percent stake is worth approximately $370 million.<\/p>\n

Simultaneous with the closing of the transaction, VICI Properties will enter into an amended and restated triple-net master lease with MGM Resorts. The lease will have an initial total annual rent of $860.0 million, inclusive of MGP\u2019s pending acquisition of MGM Springfield, and an initial term of 25 years, with three 10-year tenant renewal options,\u201d according to a statement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2022. Citigroup, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley are providing VICI with a $9.3 billion commitment for the acquisition.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Creating Strip Real Estate Monolith<\/h2>\n

VICI was spun off from Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ:CZR). While it’s the owner of the Caesars Palace, prior to this year it generated less than a third of its revenue in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

That’s slated to change in dramatic fashion. In January, the New York-based REIT partnered with private equity firm Apollo Global Management (NYSE:APO) to acquire the<\/a> Venetian Resort and Sands Expo and Convention Center on the Strip for $6.25 billion from Las Vegas Sands.<\/p>\n

\n

By acquiring MGP, VICI becomes the owner of the property assets of the following Strip venues: Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand, Mirage, New York New York and Park MGM. Overall, the buyer adds the real estate of 15 gaming venues to its portfolio, with Las Vegas becoming 45 percent of its rent base. Regional casinos will account for the rest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

There are more benefits for VICI, including reducing top tenant concentration<\/a>. Currently, properties operated by Caesars Entertainment account for 84 percent of the REIT’s rent base. Following completion of the MGP transaction, VICI’s largest tenant will account for 41 percent of rental income.<\/p>\n

VICI adds the deal will be immediately accretive to acquire funds from operations (AFFO) — a metric investors use to assess the financial health of real estate companies.<\/p>\n

Field of Gaming REITs Getting Smaller<\/h2>\n

Assuming the VICI\/MGP marriage is consummated, there will be just two publicly traded gaming REITs in the US, with Gaming and Leisure Properties, Inc. (NASDAQ:GLPI) being the other.<\/p>\n

In 2019, an investor pushed GLPI to merge with VICI<\/a>. That deal didn\u2019t come to fruition and it may be MGP investors that are benefiting.<\/p>\n

As VICI notes, the combined company could appeal to a broader swath of investors, and perhaps be positioned for inclusion in widely followed equity benchmarks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe transaction unlocks significant new index eligibility for MGP Class A shareholders, while allowing investors in the combined company to benefit from index rebalancing, given the significantly larger size, and strong positioning for S&P 500 inclusion and enhanced trading liquidity,\u201d according to the statement.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VICI Properties (NYSE:VICI) is buying rival MGM Growth Properties (NYSE:MGP) for $17.2 billion in stock. It’s an acquisition creating the dominant owner of Las Vegas Strip casino real estate. Under the terms of the transaction, VICI assumes $5.7 billion in MGP debt and gets MGM Resorts International’s (NYSE:MGM) $4.4 billion stake in the real estate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":181879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,10],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nVICI Buying MGP for $17.2 Billion, Creating Dominant Strip Landlord<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"VICI acquiring MGM Growth Properties for $17.2 billion in deal forming biggest owner of Las Vegas casino real estate.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vici-buying-mgp-for-17-2-billion-creating-dominant-strip-landlord\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"VICI Buying MGP for $17.2 Billion, Creating Dominant Strip Landlord\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"VICI acquiring MGM Growth Properties for $17.2 billion in deal forming biggest owner of Las Vegas casino real estate.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vici-buying-mgp-for-17-2-billion-creating-dominant-strip-landlord\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-04T14:46:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-04T15:56:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/MGP.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Todd Shriber\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@etfgodfather\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Todd Shriber\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vici-buying-mgp-for-17-2-billion-creating-dominant-strip-landlord\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vici-buying-mgp-for-17-2-billion-creating-dominant-strip-landlord\/\",\"name\":\"VICI Buying MGP for $17.2 Billion, Creating Dominant Strip Landlord\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vici-buying-mgp-for-17-2-billion-creating-dominant-strip-landlord\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vici-buying-mgp-for-17-2-billion-creating-dominant-strip-landlord\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/MGP.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-04T14:46:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-04T15:56:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85\"},\"description\":\"VICI acquiring MGM Growth Properties for $17.2 billion in deal forming biggest owner of Las Vegas casino real estate.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vici-buying-mgp-for-17-2-billion-creating-dominant-strip-landlord\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vici-buying-mgp-for-17-2-billion-creating-dominant-strip-landlord\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vici-buying-mgp-for-17-2-billion-creating-dominant-strip-landlord\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/MGP.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/MGP.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":960,\"caption\":\"MGM Grand on the Las Vegas Strip. Owner MGP is being acquired by VICI Properties for $17.2 billion. (Image: Wall Street Journal)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vici-buying-mgp-for-17-2-billion-creating-dominant-strip-landlord\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Financial\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/financial\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"VICI Paying $17.2B for MGM Growth Properties, Creates Biggest Strip Casino Landlord\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85\",\"name\":\"Todd Shriber\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-11-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-11-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Todd Shriber\"},\"description\":\"Todd Shriber is a senior news reporter covering gaming financials, casino business, stocks, and mergers and acquisitions for Casino.org. Todd got his start in financial markets as a reporter with Bloomberg News. Later, he became a trader at a Southern California-based long\/short hedge fund, where he specialized in the trading sector and international ETFs leading up to and during the financial crisis. He joined Casino.org in 2019. Currently, Todd analyzes, researches, and writes on ETFs for various web-based publications and financial services firms. Shriber has been featured and quoted in Barron's, CNBC.com, and The Wall Street Journal. His work can also be found on Benzinga, ETF Daily News, ETF Trends, MarketWatch, Fox Business, and Nasdaq.com. He currently resides in Las Vegas, where he enjoys golf and taking his black lab to the dog park. He's also an avid sports fan and likes to wager on college football and the NBA. You can also find him at the three-card poker and roulette table, even though he knows better. Contact Todd at todd.shriber@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/todd-shriber\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/toddshriber\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/etfgodfather\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/todd-shriber\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"VICI Buying MGP for $17.2 Billion, Creating Dominant Strip Landlord","description":"VICI acquiring MGM Growth Properties for $17.2 billion in deal forming biggest owner of Las Vegas casino real estate.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vici-buying-mgp-for-17-2-billion-creating-dominant-strip-landlord\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"VICI Buying MGP for $17.2 Billion, Creating Dominant Strip Landlord","og_description":"VICI acquiring MGM Growth Properties for $17.2 billion in deal forming biggest owner of Las Vegas casino real estate.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vici-buying-mgp-for-17-2-billion-creating-dominant-strip-landlord\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2021-08-04T14:46:24+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-08-04T15:56:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":960,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/MGP.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Todd Shriber","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@etfgodfather","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Todd Shriber","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vici-buying-mgp-for-17-2-billion-creating-dominant-strip-landlord\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vici-buying-mgp-for-17-2-billion-creating-dominant-strip-landlord\/","name":"VICI Buying MGP for $17.2 Billion, Creating Dominant Strip Landlord","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vici-buying-mgp-for-17-2-billion-creating-dominant-strip-landlord\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vici-buying-mgp-for-17-2-billion-creating-dominant-strip-landlord\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/MGP.jpg","datePublished":"2021-08-04T14:46:24+00:00","dateModified":"2021-08-04T15:56:11+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85"},"description":"VICI acquiring MGM Growth Properties for $17.2 billion in deal forming biggest owner of Las Vegas casino real estate.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vici-buying-mgp-for-17-2-billion-creating-dominant-strip-landlord\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vici-buying-mgp-for-17-2-billion-creating-dominant-strip-landlord\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vici-buying-mgp-for-17-2-billion-creating-dominant-strip-landlord\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/MGP.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/MGP.jpg","width":1280,"height":960,"caption":"MGM Grand on the Las Vegas Strip. Owner MGP is being acquired by VICI Properties for $17.2 billion. (Image: Wall Street Journal)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vici-buying-mgp-for-17-2-billion-creating-dominant-strip-landlord\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Financial","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/financial\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"VICI Paying $17.2B for MGM Growth Properties, Creates Biggest Strip Casino Landlord"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85","name":"Todd Shriber","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-11-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-11-96x96.png","caption":"Todd Shriber"},"description":"Todd Shriber is a senior news reporter covering gaming financials, casino business, stocks, and mergers and acquisitions for Casino.org. Todd got his start in financial markets as a reporter with Bloomberg News. Later, he became a trader at a Southern California-based long\/short hedge fund, where he specialized in the trading sector and international ETFs leading up to and during the financial crisis. He joined Casino.org in 2019. Currently, Todd analyzes, researches, and writes on ETFs for various web-based publications and financial services firms. Shriber has been featured and quoted in Barron's, CNBC.com, and The Wall Street Journal. His work can also be found on Benzinga, ETF Daily News, ETF Trends, MarketWatch, Fox Business, and Nasdaq.com. He currently resides in Las Vegas, where he enjoys golf and taking his black lab to the dog park. He's also an avid sports fan and likes to wager on college football and the NBA. You can also find him at the three-card poker and roulette table, even though he knows better. Contact Todd at todd.shriber@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/todd-shriber","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/toddshriber\/","https:\/\/x.com\/etfgodfather"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/todd-shriber\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181878"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}