Oct 27 (Reuters) – Scientific Games Corp, a U.S. maker of slot machines, said on Wednesday that Canadian investment company Brookfield Business Partners, will buy its lottery business for $6.05 billion.

The deal will consist of $5.825 billion in cash and an additional payment of up to $225 million based on achievement of certain profitability goals in 2022 and 2023.It is expected to close in the second quarter of next year, Scientific Games said.

With demand for online game surging during the pandemic, Las Vegas-based Scientific Games had earlier announced a plan to divest its lottery and sports-betting businesses to focus on gaming and digital content provider.

According to its website, it handles lottery games in more than 50 countries.The lottery business has also attracted interest from private equity firm Apollo Global Management Inc, a Bloomberg report said.

Brookfield said the deal for the lottery business will be funded with about $2.6 billion of equity, of which 30% will be raised through existing funds and the rest from its institutional partners.

Last month, Reuters reported that Scientific Games is also seeking to list its predominantly North American and European lotteries unit in Australia in a $5 billion IPO.

The company had in September also sold its sports betting business OpenBet to Endeavor Group Holdings Inc, the owner of the Ultimate Fighting Championship for $1.2 billion in cash and stock.(Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath and Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)