Clearwire Raises an Additional $920 Million for WiMAX Rollout

­USA based WiMAX network operator, Clearwire has announced plans to top up its recent fundraising efforts with a further US$920 million in debt. In aggregate, the company has managed to raise nearly US$2.8 billion in just the past few weeks.

"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."

The gross proceeds of this new debt offering will be placed in an escrow account until the consummation of the closing of the second phase of the $1.564 billion in new investment capital from Sprint Nextel , Comcast Corporation, Time Warner Cable, Intel Corporation, Eagle River Holdings and Bright House Networks. As previously announced, Clearwire received approximately $1.057 billion in cash from the equity financing on November 13, 2009 and expects to receive an additional $440 million in cash at a second closing, which is targeted to be completed by year end 2009, and the remaining $66 million will be funded at a closing, which is targeted to be completed during first quarter 2010.

Posted to the site on 25th November 2009