Technology
Twitter Capital Raise Verdict: Upsized and Dirt Cheap
September 12, 2014 10:35 am
Last Updated: September 12, 2014 10:36 am
Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) has had an incredible week. On top of scoring multiple analyst upgrades, Twitter raised much more than expected in its convertible debt offering — to the tune of $1.8 billion. The terms of the offering were also cheap enough that they would leave many value investors scratching their heads over how the company could land such cheap financing.Source: courtesy of Twitter
The analysts liked Twitter even before a debt financing priced. Twitter was started as Buy with a $62 price target at Canaccord Genuity, and it was raised to Buy from Neutral by UBS with its price target raised to $65 from $50.
The big news is that Twitter’s $1.8 billion convertible debt offering was larger than the $1.3 billion and $1.5 billion that had been discussed before the formal pricing and demand. Twitter’s first $900 million aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes are due in 2019, and the second $900 million tranche of convertible senior notes are due in 2021.
What is amazing is that the coupon on the five-year note is only 0.25%, and the coupon on the seven-year note was 1%. The notes that were sold will be senior and unsecured obligations of Twitter. Twitter has to pay out only $11.25 million in annual interest for this $1.8 billion in capital raised, and the conversion price is handily above the current share price. If this is not a major score for Twitter, nothing else is either.
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The sale of the notes to the initial purchasers is expected to settle on September 17, and it is expected to result in approximately $1.77 billion in net proceeds to the company. Twitter has even granted the initial purchasers of the notes a 30-day overallotment option valued at $200 million. This option allows for a purchase of up to an additional $100 million aggregate principal amount from both the 2019 and 2021 notes.
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