GGRAsia – Sci Games chairman spends US$4.6mln on firm’s shares

Sci Games chairman spends US$4.6mln on firm’s shares

Jun 20, 2019 Newsdesk Latest News, Top of the deck, World

Scientific Games Corp chairman Ronald Perelman has spent about US$4.60 million this week to acquire an aggregate of 230,000 shares in the company, according to separate filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Mr Perelman spent US$2.17 million to acquire 110,000 shares of Scientific Games at an average of US$19.73 per share, according to a Monday filing. The businessman spent an additional US$2.43 million on 120,000 shares of the company at an average of US$20.29 apiece, said a Wednesday filing.

The executive controls – via direct and indirect holdings – nearly 36.38 million shares in Scientific Games, representing slightly more than 39 percent of the firm’s common shares.

United States-based Scientific Games is a manufacturer and supplier of gaming equipment to both the casino industry and lotteries worldwide.

News of the chairman upping his stake in Scientific Games comes as reports surfaced that the company had filed a lawsuit in Nevada, in the United States, against one of its largest individual shareholders – described as a Hong Kong-based firm.

Via the lawsuit, the gaming equipment supplier wants its shareholder – identified as Sylebra Holdings – to provide information relevant to suitability considerations by the state’s gaming regulator.

Specialist media outlet CDC Gaming Reports quoted SunTrust Bank gaming analyst Barry Jonas as saying that suitability concerns over Sylebra Holdings could have prompted Mr Perelman to increase his stake in Scientific Games

“Mr Perelman has consistently added to his Scientific Games equity position when there’s been some sort of dislocation in the stock price – including [the] recent noise around Sylebra,” Mr Jonas said in his memo, as quoted by the media outlet. “We think this points to Mr Perelman’s current view on valuation and his longer-term conviction in the business,” the analyst reportedly added.

Scientific Games said in May it had narrowed its first-quarter loss on better income during the period. The company posted a net loss of US$24 million in the three months to March 31, an improvement on the US$202-million loss registered in the first quarter of last year.

Also last month, Scientific Games completed the initial public offering of a 17.4-percent minority interest in its social gaming business, SciPlay Corp, raising more than US$400 million. Scientific Games said it received US$301 million in proceeds from the offering, which it would use to pay down net debt, which stood at about US$8.96 billion as of March 31.