Benzinga | Mar 10, 2021 10:18AM EST

Vocera Raises $200M Via Convertible Senior Notes For Debt Financing

* Vocera Communications Inc (NYSE: VCRA) priced $200 million 0.50% senior convertible notes due 2026 to raise $193.9 million in an institutional offering.

* Vocera also granted the initial purchasers of the notes with an option to purchase additional notes up to $30 million.

* Vocera intends to partly utilize the offering proceeds to pay the cost of the capped call transactions. It plans to use $103.4 million of offering proceeds along with 1.3 million shares to buyback $102.9 million 1.50% senior convertible notes due 2023. Vocera intends to utilize the remainder of the offering proceeds for working capital and other general corporate purposes, including R&D funding, increasing working capital, acquisitions or investments in complementary businesses, products or technologies, and capital expenditures.

* Morgan Stanley, Piper Sandler, and William Blair & Company are the initial purchasers of the notes.

* Vocera has entered into capped call transactions with certain financial institutions to offset the potential stock dilution from any note conversion. The capped call transactions' initial cap price is $77.96, representing a 75% premium to the closing price of $44.55 on March 9, 2021.

* The notes will be senior, unsecured obligations of Vocera accruing a semi-annual interest of 0.5% per year and mature on September 15, 2026.

* The notes will be redeemable after March 20, 2024, but only if the last reported sale price per share of Vocera's stock exceeds 130% of the conversion price for a specified period.

* The notes will have an initial conversion rate of 16.6 shares of Vocera stock per $1,000 principal amount of notes equivalent to an initial conversion price of $60.14 per share, signifying a 35% premium to March 9, 2021 closing price.

* Vocera's convertible senior notes stood at $124.4 million as of December 31, 2020.

* VCRA stock has gained 61% in the last six months.

* Price action: VCRA shares are lower by 1.93% at $43.69 on the last check Wednesday.