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 sale of notes intended for institutional investors, which closed on November 21. The investment was made in four of Allianz’s suborganizations, according to Bloomberg Terminal data shared by pseudonymous analyst Petruschki on Nov. 22. after on X: “German insurance giant Allianz bought 24.75% of MicroStrategy’s 2031 bond.”
He further explained: “The vacancies were submitted 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 holder of Bitcoin, initially announced $1.75 billion in aggregate principal amount of notes on November 18. However, due to strong institutional demand, the company increased the offering to $2.6 billion just two days later.
The completion of the note offering on November 21 raised $3 billion in capital, indicating that initial purchasers exercised the option to purchase the maximum number of additional notes available. Michael Saylor, Founder and Executive Chairman of MicroStrategy, confirmed the successful closing of the offering.
The allocation of the convertible bonds represents a wide range of institutional investors. Allianz SE is the largest investor with 149,455 shares, accounting for 24.75% of the total supply. 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% stake.
This influx of institutional capital comes at a crucial time for Bitcoin, as the cryptocurrency approaches the frontier 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, commented on the development via increased compared to the original bid. The interest MSTR will pay? ZERO. (…) In case you’re wondering who hands over money on a silver plate to MSTR to buy more Bitcoin. (…) Do you see retail on the list? No, blame Wall Street, not Saylor.”
At the time of writing, BTC was trading at $97,812.
Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com