Digital Currency Group (DCG) raised $600 million through debt capital after announcing a secondary stock sale worth $700 million recently. Among DCG’s subsidiaries are digital asset manager Grayscale, digital currency prime broker Genesis, cryptocurrency news platform CoinDesk, and other big names.
The group shared a press release, revealing it had tasked Elbridge with administration obligations of the credit facility.
Entering the debt capital market
This is the first time DCG, which is based in Manhattan, has been active in the debt capital markets. The conglomerate plans to use the funds from the recent debt capital raise to grow and develop its portfolio. According to the company, the funding boosted its ‘strategic, operational, and financial capabilities’.
Company CEO Barry Silbert noted that the new funds would help better position the company to take on potential opportunities in the industry. He said:
We’re very pleased to partner with this cohort of high-quality institutional lenders and, as a profitable and rapidly growing company, we are fortunate to be able to access this growth financing with an attractive cost of capital.
CFO Michael Kraines added:
We’ve solidified our premier market position in recent years through the development and growth of our diversified subsidiaries, continued expansion of our investment portfolio, and via acquisitions. This debt financing is an important milestone to ensure DCG continues to play a leading role in the financing and development of this remarkably dynamic sector.
$700M equity transaction made DCG decacorn
The company completed a $700 million secondary stock sale a few days ago, reaching a valuation of $10 billion. The SoftBank-led sale featured a number of notable market players, such as Ribbit Capital and Alphabet’s CapitalG.
Since its founding, the conglomerate had only raised $25 million. Its decacorn status came as a surprise to many. It has more than $50 billion assets under management at the moment. Among the participants in the debt capital raise were lenders and funds managed by Capital Group, Francisco Partners, and Davidson Kempner Capital Management.
One in a million
DCG is one of very few massively valued, privately owned companies. Discussing the secondary stock sale, the CEO of the company pointed out that the goal was to give investors a chance to take profit rather than attract new capital. The funds raised were distributed among the stockholders that sold their stock, but none of them chose to sell all of their stock.
