ViaSat has closed its fully underwritten public stock offering after increasing its size from 5.5 million shares to 6 million. The shares were priced at US$33.50, a little lower than the company’s closing price of US$34.61 on March 22, the day it…
ViaSat has closed its fully underwritten public stock offering after increasing its size from 5.5 million shares to 6 million. The shares were priced at US$33.50, a little lower than the company’s closing price of US$34.61 on March 22, the day it announced the offering.
The underwriters also exercised their over-allotment option to purchase an additional 466,689 shares from ViaSat and a further 453,311 from certain existing stockholders, who sold the shares they received through ViaSat’s US$568m acquisition of WildBlue in 2009.
After giving effect to the upsizing of the offering and the exercise of the over-allotment option, the total offering consisted of 6.9 million shares, comprising approximately 3.17 million shares sold by ViaSat and 3.72 million shares sold by the selling stockholders.
ViaSat estimated that it has raised US$100.5m through the transaction (after deducting underwriting discounts and estimated offering expenses), while the selling shareholders raised approximately US$124.8m.
Morgan Stanley, BofA Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse Securities were the joint book-running managers and underwriters for the offering. Barclays Capital, Needham & Company LLC and Stephens Inc acted as co-managers.
ViaSat stated that it would use the proceeds for general corporate purposes including capital expenditure, working capital, costs relating to its new satellite ViaSat-1, and possible future acquisitions. It may also use some of the proceeds to repay borrowings made under its existing US$210m revolving credit facility.
Launches exchange offer
Meanwhile, ViaSat has commenced an exchange offer for its US$275m outstanding unregistered 8.875% Senior Notes due 2016. These notes were originally issued on October 22, 2009 in a private placement to partially finance the acquisition of WildBlue.
ViaSat is seeking to exchange the debt with equal principal amount of a new 8.875% Senior Notes due 2016. These notes have substantially identical terms as their predecessors except that the transfer restrictions, registration rights, and additional interest provisions relating to the original notes do not apply to the new notes.
The exchange offer is due expire on May 21, unless extended. Wilmington Trust is the exchange agent on the offer.