GGRAsia – Aristocrat gets sub-investment grade ratings

Aristocrat gets sub-investment grade ratings

Sep 08, 2014 Newsdesk Industry Talk, Latest News

Australian gaming supplier Aristocrat Leisure Ltd has just been assigned corporate credit ratings from Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service. Both rating agencies rated Aristocrat below investment level.

The credit ratings will support the fully underwritten long-term U.S. term debt facilities in connection with the acquisition of Video Gaming Technologies Inc (VGT), Aristocrat said on Friday in a filing to the Australian Securities Exchange.

Standard and Poor’s assigned Aristocrat a corporate rating of ‘BB’ with a stable outlook. That is two notches below investment grade, according to the company’s rating scale.

Moody’s assigned Aristocrat a provisional corporate family rating of ‘(P)Ba2’ with a stable outlook, also two levels below investment grade.

Aristocrat in July announced the acquisition of U.S.-based gaming machine provider VGT for US$1.28 billion in cash.

Privately owned VGT is a provider of gaming machines for the leased tribal gaming market in North America. The company, headquartered in Tennessee, had an installed base of approximately 20,200 leased machines at the end of last year.

Meanwhile, Aristocrat announced last week it was selling its lotteries business to online gaming software supplier Playtech Ltd for a total consideration of EUR10.5 million (US$13.8 million) in cash.