Vici Properties, the largest gaming-related real-estate investment trust, announced it has closed on its acquisition of MGM Growth Properties, the second-largest gaming REIT, for $17.2 billion.
The $17.2 billion purchase price includes the assumption of around $5.7 billion of debt from the MGM spinoff.
Upon closing, Vici now owns 43 properties nationwide in 15 states, including 10 resorts on the Las Vegas Strip, including Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand, The Mirage, Park MGM, New York-New York, Luxor and Excalibur in addition to the three Caesars Entertainment properties—Caesars Palace, Harrah’s Las Vegas and the Flamingo.
The company also is now “the largest owner of hotel and conference real estate in America,” Vici CEO Ed Pitoniak said in a press release.
Outside of Nevada, the deal brought properties including MGM Grand Detroit and MGM National Harbor into the Vici fold.
Vici will receive more than $1 billion in initial annual rent from the newly acquired properties.
MGM Resorts, which spun off MGM Growth in 2016 and was its controlling shareholder, received about $4.4 billion in cash as part of Vici’s buyout, according to the press release. Operations at MGM Resorts-run properties now owned by Vici “will continue as before for guests and employees,” MGM spokesman Brian Ahern told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
MGM will use proceeds from the deal to invest in its core business and to “continue to seek meaningful growth opportunities,” President and CEO Bill Hornbuckle said in an earnings call last week.
