The Wall Street Journal announced Sunday that Dutch personal navigation device company TomTom is planning to raise around €430 million ($602 million) by selling new shares. The Company will sell a roughly €100 million equity stake of the company to Cyrte Investments BV, a Dutch technology investor, and Janivo Holding BV, an early investor in Tele Atlas. TomTom will also sell to existing shareholders in a rights issue. Shares were down 6.2% Monday morning after the announcement.
TomTom holds €1.4 billion in debt following its €2.9 billion purchase of Tele Atlas in 2007. The Company will use the funds raised to relieve a portion of their debt burden. Cyrte and Janivo will end up with a total stake of 8% in TomTom, whose lenders have agreed to relax the terms of its remaining debt.
The saga of the debt laden company needing to raise new money in these economic times continues to unfold. Who will be next?