Sumit Roy, president and CEO of Realty Income Corp. (NYSE: O), participated in a video interview at Nareit’s REITweek: 2023 Investor Conference, held in New York June 6-8.
Roy discussed Realty Income’s recent purchase of its first gaming asset, the Encore Boston Harbor, from Wynn.
“It really was a combination of two philosophies of how we think about the business, how we think about running our various organizations, and it was a coming [together] of the minds,” he said.
Realty Income also recently acquired 415 single-tenant convenience store properties from EG Group. Roy said that although EG Group “loves to own their own assets,” the company was willing to entertain the idea of a sale lease-back with Realty Income and monetizing their real estate in order to help de-leverage their balance sheet.
“For us, it was getting a set of assets that we’ve been keeping an eye on for many, many years,” Roy said. “This has also allowed us to cultivate a relationship with EG Group, somebody that we’ve been following closely.”
Roy also discussed Realty Income’s green financing framework, which allows the company to raise capital in support of activities that reduce the company’s environmental footprint, noting that providing services like LED lighting to its tenants is one way the REIT can help with ESG initiatives.