Facebook secures $8-bn financing ahead of $5-bn IPO

Facebook, the world's largest social networking site has received an $8-billion financing package ahead of its $5-billion initial public offering (IPO), expected to value the company between $75 billion and $100 billion.

In an updated prospectus filing with the regulators for its IPO, the Menlo Park, California-based company said that it has received a $5 billion five-year revolving line of credit, a $3 billion 364-day bridge loan, and named 25 new underwriters ahead of its IPO.

The company, founded and led by its CEO Mark Zuckerberg, which almost doubled revenue last year to $3.71 billion, said in the filing that it would use some of the loans to fund taxes for employees who exercise their restricted stock units, for working capital, and other general corporate purposes.

The new borrowing comes after Facebook had said in its previous filing that it had secured a $1.5 billion line of credit in February 2011, which was raised to $2.5 billion by September.

Its $5-billion five-year revolving line of credit will replace an existing $2.5-billion revolving line. The $3-billion bridge loan has been arranged by JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley, Facebook's leading underwriters.

The six original underwriting team of Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Capital Inc, and Allen & Co, has now been joined by Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, RBC Capital Markets, Wells Fargo, Blaylock Robert Van, BMO Capital Markets, C.L. King & Associates, Cabrera Capital Markets, CastleOak Securities, Cowen & Co, Lazard Capital, Lebenthal & Co, Loop Capital, M.R. Beal & Co, Macquarie Capital, Muriel Siebert, Oppenheimer & Co, Pacific Crest Securities, Piper Jaffray, Raymond James & Associates, Samuel Ramirez & Co, Stifel, Nicolaus & Co, The Williams Capital Group, and William Blair & Co.