VICI to issue 100 million shares to fund Venetian deal

The company are offering up 100,000,000 shares of common stock priced at $29.50 per share. 50,000,000 shares are being issued and sold directly to the underwriters of the deal at closing, while the other 50,000,000 will be sold on.

Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs have all entered into separate forward sale agreements with VICI to sell shares from the latter group on.

The underwriters were also offered a 30-day option to buy a further 15,000,000 shares.

The four forward purchasers are also acting as joint book running managers and representatives of the underwriters during the offering, while BofA Securities, Deutsche Bank Securities, Barclays and Wells Fargo Securities are acting as bookrunners.

VICI plan to use the proceeds from the offering to partially fund the acquisition of land and property associated with The Venetian Resort and The Venetian Expo in Las Vegas – the $6.25bn deal for the properties was agreed with Las Vegas Sands back in March, as the operator sought to leave the US casino market.

VICI pay $4bn in cash for the real estate, Apollo Global management will acquire the subsidiaries that run Sands’ US operations for $1.05bn, and $1.20bn is attributed to seller financing through a loan credit and security agreement.

VICI was originally spun off from Caesars Entertainment – which announced itsfundraising this week – and owns the majority of properties operated by the from original Caesars business before it merged with Eldorado in July 2020.

Caesars intends to raise $1.2bn, $200m more than initially announced, by issuing senior notes carrying a 4.625% interest rate. The notes are due in 2029.

The offering is expected to close by 24 September, subject to customary closing conditions. The proceeds of which are set to fund the Caesars Resorts Collection.