American real estate investment trust Vici Properties Incorporated has announced that it is hoping to raise up to $2 billion in cash via the launch of a public offering involving 60 million common shares individually priced at $29.

Spun off from Caesars Entertainment Corporation in 2017, the New York-listed enterprise used an official Wednesday press release to detail that this exercise will see financial services firms Citigroup Incorporated, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank Securities Incorporated and BofA Securities Incorporated serve as agents for the new shares. It explained that these enterprises are to subsequently be put in charge of selling the interests to institutional investors while simultaneously being given a 30-day option on a further nine million identically-priced stakes.

Prominent purchase:

Vici Properties Incorporated inked a deal earlier this week that saw it agree to pay Las Vegas Sands Corporation some $4 billion in order to acquire the real estate and associated resources of the American casino operator’s giant Sands Expo and Convention Center as well as its The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and attached 3,000-room The Palazzo hotel. The company stated that all of the proceeds from the 69 million new shares are to be ultimately applied to this arrangement or utilized for ‘general business purposes’ that could encompass commitments such as ‘the repayment of indebtedness’ in addition to the further development or improvement of the three Nevada properties.

Investor interest:

News of its understanding with Las Vegas Sands Corporation immediately sent the value of shares in Vici Properties Incorporated up by just over 4.74% on Wednesday to $29.79 although this price has since subsided to stand at about $28.65. The company furthermore proclaimed that it ‘will not initially receive any proceeds’ as a result of the coming share sale, which is set to run until March 8 of next year, and intends to use any ensuing income ‘to fund a portion of the purchase price’ for the trio of Las Vegas venues.

Major member:

Vici Properties Incorporated is already heavily involved in the American casino industry via its ownership of 28 gambling-friendly properties including the well-known Caesars Palace Las Vegas, Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City and Hard Rock Casino Cincinnati that are leased to operators such as Caesars Entertainment Incorporated, Hard Rock International and Penn National Gaming Incorporated. This portfolio features an aggregated estate of around 17,800 hotel rooms alongside over 200 bars, nightclubs, sportsbooks and restaurants that earned the firm 2019 revenues of $894.8 million, which represented a slight decrease when compared with the $898 million chalked up for the previous twelve-month period.