On this episode of Stock Movers:
- Beyond Meat (BYND) Four years ago, Beyond Meat was able to raise over $1 billion selling a a zero-coupon convertible bond due 2027, taking advantage of rampant bets on the future of plant-based meat products. Wolverine Asset Management, DE Shaw & Co. and Context Capital Management were among the firms that bought in, only to watch Beyond’s fortunes flag spectacularly as the meatless burger craze faded. By this year, Beyond had to address the looming maturity from a position of weakness. It launched an exchange offer with existing bondholders through a debt-swap paying 7% interest and additional shares in exchange for the old notes. What looked like a pretty nice outcome for the bondholders quickly turned into a wild ride after Beyond Meat’s shares got caught up in the latest bout of meme-stock madness. The stock soared some 1,300% in a matter of days, delivering, on paper at least, a windfall to holders of the convertible. The bond itself, due in 2030, trades around 110 cents on the dollar.
- Qualcomm (QCOM) Qualcomm Inc. shares rose to their highest price in 15 months after unveiling chips and computers for the lucrative AI data center market, aiming to challenge Nvidia Corp. in the fastest-growing part of the industry. The company’s new AI200 lineup will start shipping next year, Qualcomm said on Monday. The first customer will be Saudi Arabia’s AI startup Humain, which plans to deploy 200 megawatts’ worth of computing systems based on the chips starting in 2026.
- Keurig (KDP) Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. is raising $7 billion from Apollo and KKR to help finance its acquisition of JDE Peet’s NV, aiming to ease investor concerns about taking on too much debt. Wall Street has expressed skepticism over Keurig’s August announcement to buy the Dutch coffee company for about $18 billion. The deal raises Keurig’s leverage and triples its exposure to a coffee category that investors wanted to see reduced, TD Cowen analyst Robert Moskow wrote in a note earlier this month. The stock increased as much as 10% on Monday, the biggest intraday gain since March 2020. Year to date, shares had declined 15% through Oct. 24.
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