Facebook expects to raise $1.48 billion from follow-on offering

NEW YORK: Social networking giant Facebook expects to raise about $ 1.48 billion from its underwritten registered public offering of 70 million shares at $ 55.05 per share.

The California-headquartered firm plans to use the funds raised for working capital needs and corporate purposes.

"The public offering price of the offering is USD 55.05 per share and the company estimates that the net proceeds from the offering will be approximately USD 1.48 billion after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses," Facebook said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Last week, the company had announced the pricing of its underwritten registered public offering of 70,000,000 shares of its 'Class A' shares at USD 55.05 apiece.

About 27 million shares are being offered by the firm, while around 42.99 million shares are being offered by some selling stockholders, which includes co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

The filing, which was submitted yesterday, further said: "The company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for working capital and other general corporate purposes. The company will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the selling stockholders."

Facebook said it expects majority of the net proceeds Zuckerberg will receive upon the sale of shares in the offering will be used to satisfy taxes that he incurred in connection with his exercise, in full, of an outstanding stock option to purchase 60 million 'Class B' shares.

JP Morgan, BofA Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Barclays are serving as joint book runners for the offering.

BNP Paribas, Citigroup, RBC Capital Markets, Credit Suisse, HSBC, Standard Chartered and Piper Jaffray are serving as co-managers for the offering.