Services

Creating a leading content-driven and cross-platform global games company

Advising Light & Wonder on the $US6.05 billion sale of its lottery business, Scientific Games Lottery, to Brookfield Business Partners.

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Sector	Services
Sub-sector	Consumer, Gaming and Leisure
Location	United States, Australia, Canada

Opportunity

Scientific Games Lottery, a division of Light & Wonder (formerly known as Scientific Games Corporation), is one of the largest global lottery partners - providing high-performing products and essential services to lottery programs that drive critical sources of funding for governments around the world.

Selling their global lottery division would allow Light & Wonder to accelerate their strategy to optimise their portfolio, deleverage their balance sheet and invest in future growth in different areas of their business.

Approach

Macquarie Capital leveraged its deep industry knowledge and expertise to advise Light & Wonder on the sale of Scientific Games Lottery, a critical step in Light & Wonder’s strategic transformation.

Macquarie Capital assisted in designing a dual-track process that explored both a sale and an Australian initial public offering  (IPO) to maximise competitive tension. By highlighting Scientific Games Lottery’s contracted and recurring revenue model, long-standing customer relationships, high free cash flow generation, and managed services business model, Macquarie was able to successfully articulate the infrastructure-like qualities of the business, resulting in a premium valuation.

Outcome

The successful sale of Scientific Games Lottery to Brookfield Business Partners positioned Scientific Games Lottery as a stand-alone company with the balance sheet that allows the pursuit of new growth opportunities and enables Scientific Games Lottery to optimise its product portfolio for its lottery customers and their beneficiaries.

The completion of this transaction has accelerated Light & Wonder’s strategic transformation into a content-driven and cross-platform global games company. Light & Wonder was able to utilise the upfront proceeds of $US5.8 billion to significantly deleverage the company and pursue acquisitions to support its continued shift into a high-growth, digitally focused company.