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SoftBank extends OneWeb $300m option

April 16, 2020

By Chris Forrester

OneWeb might be in Chapter 11 bankruptcy (under ‘debtor in possession’ rules) but its major backer, Japan’s SoftBank says that in addition to a $75 million fresh loan to the company it might extend that by another $225 million.

The maximum of $300 million will help keep OneWeb alive while it seeks to sell itself or its main assets. OneWeb entered Chapter 11 on March 27th. The SoftBank loan is structured as $10 million now, with the $65 million of funding contingent on OneWeb making some progress towards selling its most valuable asset, it spectrum and licensed frequencies.

If a Letter of Intent comes forward from a potential buyer then extra cash will flow into OneWeb. OneWeb says that it hopes to secure this Letter of Intent by May 11th.

The extra funds come on top of the existing $2 billion in terms of investment in OneWeb that SoftBank has already made. OneWeb’s total equity and debt topped $3.4 billion.

OneWeb has a handful of other significant debtors, not least Airbus Group, Banco Azteca, Qualcomm Technologies, Institución de Banca Múltiple as well as the Ruwandan government.

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