Standard & Poor's has cut its rating for Italy's lottery operator GTECH and Moody's put it on review for a downgrade after the company said it was buying U.S. slot machine maker International Game Technology for $4.7 billion.GTECH said on Thursday S&Ps had cut its rating on the company to BBB- from BBB without elaborating.In a later statement, rival agency Moody's said it was reviewing the rating of both GTECH and IGT for a possible downgrade.Moody's said its decision was due to its assessment that the new company's 5.0 times pro forma debt/EBITDA - excluding synergies - "is a level that we would typically consider high for a low investment grade rating."
International Game Technology (IGT) is a global gaming company specializing in the design, development, manufacture, and marketing of casino-style gaming equipment, systems technology, and game content across multiple platforms: land-based, online real-money and social gaming. Shares of IGT traded higher by 0.3% or $0.05/share to $16.97. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $12.14 and as high as $21.20. On average, 7731230 shares of IGT exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 24879484.
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