IREN sinks after announcing share offering as part of refinancing plan

Bitcoin miner turned data center company IREN tumbled in postmarket trading on Monday, and remains mired in the red ahead of the open on Tuesday, after announcing plans to sell shares as part of a plan to refinance its debt.Management is proceeding with a registered direct offering of shares to a limited number of potential buyers, and using those funds to repurchase up to about $1.5 billion in convertible notes due in 2029 and 2030 with coupons of 3.5% and 3.25%, respectively.How many shares the company ultimately offers will be governed by how many of these convertible note holders are willing to sell.Separately, IREN is also issuing $2 billion in new convertible senior notes in a private offering to qualified institutional buyers, split between 2032 and 2033 maturities. Finalized terms, including the interest rate and initial conversion rate of the notes, are yet to be announced, but Bloomberg reports — citing people familiar with the matter — that the company is aiming for the 2032 note to carry a coupon of 0% to 0.25% and for the coupon on the 2033 note to be between 0.5% and 1%. Both notes are expected to have conversion premiums of 25% to 30%.Meeting the demand for AI compute and power requires that IREN, one of the so-called neoclouds, invests in the necessary infrastructure to boost its capacity. In November, the company booked a near $10-billion deal with Microsoft to provide access to computing capacity at a data center campus in Texas. IREN was recently added to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives’ list of the 30 biggest beneficiaries of the AI boom.