Beyond Meat’s market cap has collapsed to just $39.9m, after a bid to cut down looming debt maturities diluted shares and angered investors.
The vegan meat-mimicking manufacturer’s share price has collapsed 74.5% in a single week’s trading, after it announced it had agreed a plan to swap $1.1bn worth of debt due in 2027 for a mix of new debt and equity.
Beyond Meat offered existing bond-holders a swap for up to $202.5m in new bonds due in 2030, and up to 326 million new shares – more than four times as many shares as Beyond Meat currently has in circulation.
Almost all (96.9%) of Beyond Meat’s bondholders voted for the deal, meeting an 85% threshold. When Beyond Meat declared the plan at the end of September, stock sank from around $3 to just below $2.
Even before full trading restrictions are lifted on the new shares on 16 October, the dilution and negative shareholder reaction has now reduced Beyond Meat’s share price to an all-time low of $0.52 – well below its average of around $3 in 2025 so far, and leagues from the highs of around $150 it enjoyed during the pandemic.
While a bitter pill for investors, the deal has relieved Beyond Meat of a major problem: around $800m in debt it would have had to repay in 2027.
“We are pleased to announce this early settlement of the exchange offer for our existing convertible notes, which marks a meaningful next step towards our goal of reducing leverage and extending debt maturity for Beyond Meat,” said the company’s CEO, Ethan Brown.
The company has limped from blow to blow in the past few years, and in its second quarter results to 28 June reported operating losses of $95m for the year to date.
Turnover in Q2 was down 19.6% year on year thanks to a 18.9% fall in volumes – maintaining momentum in a downward trend that saw the company’s revenues fall to $326m in 2024, down consecutively from $343m in 2023 and $419m in 2022.
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