SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
IGT Plc has disclosed that it has increased the cap on its tender offer to raise cash from its US and EU senior debt notes from $500m to $600m.
This September the NYSE technology group authorised a ‘purchase for cash’ transaction, aiming to raise $500m from its outstanding $1.1bn senior secured $ notes due for 2025 at a 6.5% interest rate.
Terms of the tender offer had been further applied to IGT’s existing €uro debt notes of €500m due for 2024 at a 3.5% interest rate.
The original debt note transaction saw IGT place a minimum ‘offer sub cap’ (hard-cap) of $350m, whilst the purchase of €uro notes will remain unrestricted.
This morning IGT announced to the NYSE that it had “exercised its discretion to increase the maximum acceptance amount to U$600,279,934”, with a final cash outcome dependent on exchange rate calculations.
Increasing the debt note cash target to $600m, IGT has increased its dollar sub cap to $400m applied to its US debt note tranche.
The decision to enlarge the tender offer’s cash amount to $600m follows the conclusion of IGT’s ‘early premium’ for bondholders with a $30/€30 discount on every $1,000/€1,000 notes redeemed before 5 pm EST on 16 September.
Closing its early premium, IGT has accepted debt note purchases totalling $400m, of which €199m has been accounted for from its €uro debt tranche.
The timetable for the tender offer remains unchanged, as IGT aims to conclude the transaction before 30 September.
A changing global economic outlook saw IGT revise down its full-year revenue targets to $4.1bn – anticipating further currency rate fluctuations impacting the financial results of its business units.
Corporate governance continues to prioritise lowering the group’s long-term debt, which currently stands at $5.7bn.
Of significance, H2 trading will see IGT continue to transform its business, as the company expects to complete the integration of newly acquired iSoftBet games and aggregator solutions expanding the products and services of the IGT Digital unit.
