Telegram has fully settled the convertible bonds issued five years ago. This was announced by the messaging app’s founder, Pavel Durov.
In March 2021, the company issued five-year convertible dollar bonds with an annual yield of 7% amounting to a total of $1 billion. The bonds offered investors the option to convert them into Telegram shares at a 10% discount to the nominal price in the event of an IPO.
According to media reports, the messaging app operator planned to go public by the end of 2023. As the deadline approached, reports emerged of the IPO being postponed by another 18-24 months.
In May 2021, Telegram additionally issued bonds worth $750 million under the same conditions.
According to Durov, the monetization strategy adopted five years ago will allow the messaging app to become profitable by 2024.
“As a result, our new bond issuance last year was oversubscribed,” he added.
Telegram had previously conducted debt placements, with Durov himself buying back a quarter of one tranche worth $270 million.
In August 2028, the entrepreneur was detained in France. Among the authorities’ stated grievances was the provision of “cryptographic services for privacy functions without proper declaration, as well as cryptographic tools not solely intended for message authentication or integrity verification.” One of the alleged offenses was the refusal to provide information to competent authorities.
Durov was placed under judicial supervision with a bail of €5 million. The first substantive interrogations took place four months later, and the case has yet to reach court.
Shortly after his detention, Durov announced enhanced moderation of the messaging app. At that time, the platform also began responding promptly to legal requests from European authorities.
Statistics on legal requests from several countries for user data disclosure have been made publicly available.
In Russia, Durov’s actions are under investigation as part of a criminal case concerning the facilitation of terrorist activities.