Clearwire secures portion of $1B term loan

Clearwire Corp. secured the first portion of a fully committed $1 billion term loan that the wireless broadband service provider said would be used to refinance its debt and effectively extend all of its debts to a five-year maturity. The transaction was led by Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan and Citigroup. The remainder of the senior secured term loan will be funded in about 45 days, according to Clearwire.
“Clearwire is capitalizing on the momentum we have in the marketplace to drive down our cost of capital, extend our debt maturities, simplify our balance sheet and provide additional capital resources,” said John Butler, Clearwire’s CFO.
Clearwire, which went public in March, saw its stock initially slide in value from its $27.25 opening trading price and trade below $20 per share for much of the spring. But in recent weeks, the company’s stock has rebounded to around $25 per share. News of the new loan sent the stock briefly above $25 per share.