Ron Perelman’s latest Scientific Games shopping spree has now topped $6.1 million.
The billionaire chairman of the Las Vegas-based gaming equipment provider has now made three separate acquisitions of the company’s stock this month, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Last Thursday, he spent more than $1.5 million on 75,000 Scientific Games stock at $20.21 per share. The purchase followed a $2.43 million buy of 120,000 shares a day earlier and $2.17 million purchase of 110,000 share a week ago.
Through his New York-based MacAndrews & Forbes investment arm, Perelman controls more than, 36.4 million shares of Scientific Games, or almost 40 percent of the company, which provides gaming equipment to both the casino industry and lotteries worldwide.
Scientific Games has not commented on the stock purchases. Acquiring Scientific Games stock is not unusual for Perelman. In December, he spent $27 million to purchase 1.5 million shares of the company’s stock over a multiple day buying spree.
Since the stock purchases, shares of Scientific Games have fallen in the past few days. The stock closed Monday at $18.08 on the Nasdaq, down 91 cents or 4.79 percent.
The stock acquisitions could be in response to suitability concerns over Sylebra Holdings, the company’s third-largest shareholder, may have spurred the stock purchase.
Scientific Games sued the Hong Kong-based company on June 14 to force compliance with requests for information and disclosure submissions for suitability from more than two dozen gaming regulatory bodies both in the U.S. and internationally.
“Mr. Perelman has consistently added to his Scientific Games equity position when there’s been some sort of dislocation in the stock price – including (the) recent noise around Sylebra,” SunTrust gaming analyst Barry Jonas said a week ago. “We think this points to Mr. Perelman’s current view on valuation and his longer-term conviction in the business.”
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgamingreports.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
