The messaging app Telegram has raised $1 billion through a bond issue. RBC reports, citing an informed source.
According to available information, on March 12 the company placed five-year convertible dollar-denominated bonds at a 7% annual coupon. The principal amount of one security was $1,000.
The order book for the bonds, opened on March 9, closed last week.
The minimum lot for participation was $500,000. The bonds mature in 2026, with the first coupon payment slated for September 2021.
The bonds give holders the option to convert them into the company’s shares at a 10% discount to the issue price in the event of an IPO.
Telegram itself acted as the arranger of the bond issue on the over-the-counter market. The agents on the Russian market were “VTB Capital” and Aton. Another agent named by the source is “Alfa-Capital”.
According to Forbes, the bond issue sparked investor demand – the order book was oversubscribed almost twofold. The publication did not rule out that the company would increase the offer to $1.5 billion.
Earlier in February, Kommersant reported that Telegram to place $1 billion in bonds with a select group of investors.
In January, The Information reported private talks by Pavel Durov with banks and investors about raising $1 billion via a convertible bond issue and Telegram’s IPO. Later, Durov himself partially denied the information, noting that his team had indeed received loan offers from financial institutions.
In the same month, according to The Bell, Durov rejected a bid by a consortium of Western funds to buy a 5–10% stake in the company, based on a valuation of $30 billion.
In March, one of Telegram’s convertible-bond placement agents, “VTB Capital”, valued the company’s potential in 2022 at between $2.2 billion and $124 billion.
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