Clearwire lands $1B+ in additional funds

Clearwire Corp. bridged a potential funding gap announcing plans to raise $920 million through the offering of 12% senior secured notes due in 2015. In addition the carrier said it closed on a $1.852 billion offering of 12% senior notes due in 2015 that will be used to pay off $1.4 billion of existing debt, leaving Clearwire with approximately $360 million of additional funding.
The moves follows the recent round of equity financing from strategic partners that garnered the company $1.56 billion in funding.
In total, Clearwire said it has raised more than $2.8 billion over the past several weeks to help fund the reported $2 billion the company needs to complete its planned WiMAX buildout covering 120 million potential customers by the end of 2010.
“Today, we are proud to have secured an additional $920 million in debt financing, which, when coupled with the $1.56 billion of recently announced equity financing and the $1.85 billion of debt financing that we closed on today, demonstrates our ability to access the capital markets on attractive terms and in sufficient size to meet our needs, while at the same time prudently balancing equity dilution with the cost of capital,” said Bill Morrow, CEO of Clearwire. “With this latest tranche of additional funding, we have not only exceeded the amount of capital that we have previously stated we needed to fully fund our business plan, but we have also secured additional capital that will allow us to expand more aggressively by covering more people, and with more capacity than we had previously planned.”
Clearwire’s stock was trading up more than 6% early Wednesday at $5.76 per share.