Gavin Isaacs, CEO of lottery and gaming giant Scientific Games Corporation, assured investors last week that the company’s pending .1 billion acquisition of diversified gaming supplier Bally Technologies is on track to close by the end of the year.
Isaacs, who blamed short-sellers for a bogus report in Bloomberg two weeks ago indicating that the consortium of banks was delaying more than $3 billion in bridge loans, used the company’s third-quarter earnings call to assure investors that Scientific Games has the ability to fund the Bally purchase. The company will initiate a debt offering that will provide the last piece of the funds needed for the purchase.
“Management still experts to close the Bally deal by year’s end regardless of whether or not the remaining acquisition-related debt is funded via a high-yield offering or taken on by the current bank syndicate,” Eilers Research founder Todd Eilers told investors after the call.
On the conference call, Isaacs said acquisition would increase cash flow and reduce obligations taken on by the deal.
“Our goal is to primarily use our increased free cash flow to pay down debt and bring our leverage ratios back to more optimal levels,” he said.
