Successful debt refinancing for Light & Wonder

American gaming machines behemoth Scientific Games Corporation has announced that its new Light & Wonder arm has successfully completed a pair of debt refinancing transactions to reduce its aggregated arrears by some $4.8 billion.

The Las Vegas-headquartered parent used an official Thursday press release (pdf) to detail that the subordinate in charge of all of its gaming and iGaming activities now holds outstanding debts of approximately $4 billion after completing the sale of its lottery business to a subordinate of Canadian financial services giant Brookfield Asset Management Incorporated.

Financial feats:

Scientific Games Corporation unveiled the Light & Wonder rebrand in March and disclosed that the refinancing campaign also incorporated retiring an existing $4 billion term loan at the same time as redeeming $3 billion in secured and unsecured notes. The giant noted that these were followed by the inking of a fresh $2.2 billion term loan facility as well as the realization of a new $750 million revolving credit amenity.

Considered course:

Barry Cottle serves as the Light & Wonder Chief Executive Officer for Scientific Games Corporation and he used the press release to declare that the various debt refinancing exercises have ‘significantly strengthened’ his enterprise’s ‘credit profile’ by taking its adjusted net debt leverage ratio to below 3.9x. The executive moreover pronounced that his company is ‘making rapid progress executing on our strategy to transform our business’ following the lottery sale and will now save an estimated $225 million in annual interest payments.

Read a statement from Cottle…

“We see tremendous opportunity to create value for our shareholders and other stakeholders by building great games and franchises to entertain our players wherever and whenever they want to play. The steps we are taking to strengthen our balance sheet will enhance our ability to create value and the speed at which we can unlock that value and achieve our vision of becoming the leading cross-platform global game company.”

Prolonged partnership:

In related news and Scientific Games Corporation used a second Thursday press release (pdf) to explain that its Light & Wonder subsidiary has extended its own relationship with British land-based and online sportsbook operator Entain. The colossus proclaimed that its new-look satellite is to continue supplying the London-listed ally’s Ladbrokes and Coral-branded shops with more than 10,000 retail betting terminals alongside access to a range of associated entertainment such as the new 777 High & Mighty and Lord of the Rings titles.

Capacious capacity:

The Light & Wonder EMEA Senior Vice-President and Managing Director for Scientific Games Corporation, Simon Johnson (pictured), used this press release to assert that Entain is to additionally maintain access to his company’s content aggregation platform. The experienced professional noted that this will give the operator ‘an extensive library of over 3,000 titles’ developed by some of the industry’s premier iGaming studios in concert with ‘cutting-edge player features including responsible gaming tools.’

A statement from Johnson read…

“We are delighted that Entain has chosen to continue our partnership through to 2030. Our teams have more than 20 years of history together and we’re excited about supporting Entain through its next phase of growth and innovation. The future is exciting for both Entain and Light & Wonder.”