Allianz SE, Europe's second-largest insurance company and Germany's largest, has acquired nearly 25% of MicroStrategy's recent convertible bond offering. The investment marks a substantial endorsement of bitcoin by a major financial institution.
Allianz wants exposure to bitcoin
Allianz bought 24.75% of MicroStrategy's $2.6 billion note sale to institutional investors, which closed on Nov. 21. The investment was made in four of Allianz's suborganizations, according to Bloomberg Terminal data shared by pseudonymous analyst Petruschki in a Nov. 22 report. <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/petruschkii/status/1859881777940283522″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener nofollow”>mail at x: “German insurance giant Allianz bought 24.75% of MicroStrategy's 2031 bond.”
He also detailed: “The positions were filed in July and October. The shares are held by the following sub-organizations: Allianz Global Investors Luxembourg 14.34%, Allianz Global Investors of America LP 6.64%, Nicholas Applegate Capital Management Inc. 3.74% and Allianz Global Investors GmbH 0.04%.
MicroStrategy, known as the world's largest corporate bitcoin holder, initially announced a total principal amount of notes of $1.75 billion on November 18. However, due to strong institutional demand, the company increased the offer to $2.6 billion just two days later.
The completion of the bond offering on November 21 raised $3 billion in capital, indicating that the initial buyers exercised the option to purchase the maximum amount of additional bonds available. Michael Saylor, founder and CEO of MicroStrategy, confirmed the successful closing of the offering.
The allocation of the convertible notes shows a diverse range of institutional investors. Allianz SE is the largest investor with 149,455 shares, representing 24.75% of the total offering. Calamos Partners LLC follows with 37,329 shares (6.18%) and Context Capital Management LLC owns 30,500 shares (5.05%).
Other notable investors include State Street Corp with 8,307 shares (1.38%) and FMR LLC with 7,199 shares (1.19%). BlackRock, Schroders PLC and the Royal Bank of Canada also participated, each with less than 1% of the shares.
This influx of institutional capital comes at a crucial time for bitcoin, as the cryptocurrency approaches the historic milestone of $100,000. Allianz's investment is seen by many as a strong vote of confidence in bitcoin's long-term potential.
Patrick Dotson, co-founder and COO of Synnax, <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/DarioCpx/status/1859935053423505488″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener nofollow”>commented on the development via increasing it by a whopping 850 million dollars compared to the initial offer. . The interest that MSTR will pay? ZERO. (…) In case you are wondering who is handing money on a silver platter to MSTR to buy more bitcoin. (…) Do you see any retailers on the list? No, blame Wall Street, not Saylor.”
At the time of publication, btc was trading at $97,812.
Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
