GGRAsia – Perelman entities sell US$55mln in Sci Games stock

Perelman entities sell US$55mln in Sci Games stock

Oct 14, 2020 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

Entities controlled by Scientific Games Corp’s former executive chairman Ronald Perelman disposed on Monday of just over 1.96 million shares in the gaming equipment supplier, at an agreed price of US$28.00 per unit, i.e., a consideration of just under US$55 million.

Scientific Games’ stock closed at US$34.24 on Tuesday trading in the United States, up 2.53 percent on the day.

The disposal of the 1.96 million shares represented “an additional tranche of the sale transactions contemplated by the previously disclosed stock purchase agreement”, said the casino technology firm in a U.S. filing on Tuesday.

It leaves interests controlled by Mr Perelman, holding “approximately 9.3 percent” of the common stock of the group, added the announcement.

In mid-September, it had been revealed that control of Scientific Games was changing hands, with the sale of a 34.9-percent stake – that had been held by financier Mr Perelman – to other parties including Caledonia, a global investment firm that had also at some stage been an investor in the Australian slot machine brand Aristocrat.

As of the mid-September announcement, Scientific Games said the shareholding changes would be achieved in “multiple tranches”, and that by the end of the ownership reshuffle “no investor is expected to beneficially own more than 9.9 percent of the outstanding shares” in the group.

Following the deal, Jamie Odell, a former chief executive of Aristocrat Leisure Ltd, was brought in to Scientific Games as its executive chair.

In late September, it was announced that Tim Throsby, an Australian who until March last year headed United Kingdom-based Barclays Bank Plc, had been appointed as an independent director of Scientific Games.