GGRAsia – Sci Games closer to IPO for social gaming biz

Sci Games closer to IPO for social gaming biz

Apr 08, 2019 Newsdesk Industry Talk, Latest News, Top of the deck, World

Scientific Games Corp, a United States-based casino equipment maker and lottery services company says its social gaming arm has taken a step closer to floating shares on Nasdaq.

Scientific Games issued on Friday a written announcement saying its social gaming subsidiary, SciPlay Corp, had sent the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission a registration statement for its proposed initial public offering of a minority interest in that enterprise.

“The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined,” the announcement said. “The company has applied to list its Class-A common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol SCPL,” it added.

Scientific Games reported in February that it made a net profit of US$206.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2018, having made a net a loss of US$43.1 million a year earlier. Fourth-quarter revenue rose by 7.6 percent year-on-year to US$885.7 million.

The company’s annual net loss grew to US$352.4 million last year from US$242.3 million the year before, on revenue that increased by 9.1 percent to US$3.36 billion.

Scientific Games said at the time that it was working on floating shares in its social gaming business.

“The company anticipates that the proceeds from the contemplated IPO would primarily be used to repay debt,” it said.

The announcement issued on Friday says the book-runners for the SciPlay offering will be Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith Inc; JP Morgan Securities LLC; Deutsche Bank Securities Inc; Goldman Sachs and Co LLC; Morgan Stanley and Co LLC; Macquarie Capital (USA) Inc; and RBC Capital Markets LLC. The co-managers for the offering will be Stifel, Nicolaus and Co Inc, and Wedbush Securities Inc.

Scientific Games had said in November it had been considering an IPO for a minority interest in its social gaming business. “The social gaming business continues to experience rapid growth and has reached significant scale,” the firm stated at the time.

“An IPO would give us greater flexibility to pursue growth for the [social gaming] business and drive value for stakeholders,” Barry Cottle, president and chief executive of Scientific Games, had stated.