Hong Kong hedge-fund firm Sylebra Capital Partners, the third-largest shareholder of gaming supplier Scientific Games Corp., has sued the company and its chairman, billionaire financier Ronald Perelman, alleging they raised concerns about the firm to regulators in a bid to force it to sell back its stake in the gambling company at a steep discount.
The case is a countersuit to SG’s June lawsuit, in which the supplier claimed Sylebra owned a significant stake in a Russian company alleged to be involved in illegal gaming, money laundering and support of terrorist organizations. Sylebra refused requests for information and disclosure submissions by gaming regulators, the lawsuit claimed.
In the counter-suit, Sylebra’s attorneys stressed that no questions regarding suitability were raised when the company first acquired the stock—that is was only Perelman’s most recent efforts to buy up company shares—he currently owns nearly 40 percent—that prompted the effort to muscle the Hong Kong investor out.
“Scientific Games even helped Sylebra navigate the regulatory landscape with full knowledge of their investment objectives,” attorneys wrote. However, a “shift in attitude coincided with a significant increase in the value of Scientific Games’ stock, which had nearly doubled since the Sylebra plaintiffs’ initial investment.
Scientific Games publicly responded to the filing on Wednesday, the same day the countersuit was filed.
“In response to Scientific Games’ efforts to ensure integrity and transparency, which is required by U.S. regulators, Sylebra has sued to distract from the basic and obvious fact—Sylebra has simply not provided plain vanilla information which would resolve this dispute as well as the lawsuit SG filed against Sylebra months ago,” Scientific Games Vice President of Corporate Communications Susan Cartwright said in a statement.
