The Telegram Group company, which owns the Telegram messenger, decided to borrow a billion dollars for business development. This was reported by Kommersant, citing sources. According to VTimes, the plans to issue bonds are associated with losses and lack of funds to cover urgent debt obligations. The company must return more than $ 600 million to investors by the end of April 2021.
According to Kommersant, Telegram is going to raise a billion dollars through convertible bonds that will not be placed on the stock exchange. They are going to be distributed among a limited circle of investors from Russia, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. The company needs money to improve infrastructure, stabilize operations and attract new users. In January, the messenger became the most downloaded non-gaming application in the world.
According to the source of the newspaper, the bonds are going to be issued for a period of five years, annually their owners will receive a coupon yield of 7-8 percent of the debt. If Telegram is going to go public within five years, then the bondholders will be able to return the borrowed funds at the expense of the share with a 10 percent discount to the placement price. In the meantime, it is not profitable for the company to enter the stock exchange, because if Telegram is monetized (while the project is not monetized), shares can be placed at a more favorable price.