Bending Spoons closed its $1.36 billion Miro buyout and got a first BB rating as Fitch sees 6.1x leverage
The Milan consolidator closed the Miro buyout on October 26, got its first BB rating the day after, and is marketing $1.5 billion of double-digit-yield notes to fund more of the same: subscription software bought at a tenth of 2021 prices.
Vincent Jiang · 2 min read
Miro is sold, and its sellers took stock instead of all cash
Miro$1.79B — Miro, private, latest valuation $1.79B, the visual workspace used by more than 250,000 organizations, has a new owner 123. Bending Spoons+0.06% — Bending Spoons, up 0.06 percent as of its last quote, the Milan software consolidator listed on Nasdaq, closed its all-cash purchase on Monday October 26 at $1.355 billion of enterprise value, about $1.79 billion counting Miro's net cash 123. The sellers did not walk away clean: certain former Miro shareholders rolled roughly $295 million of their proceeds into about 6.2 million new Bending Spoons shares, an average near $47.50 each 14.
A first-time junk rating arrives the day after
The day after closing, Fitch gave Bending Spoons its first long-term issuer rating: BB, stable, for a proposed $1.5 billion of senior secured notes, $1 billion in dollars and about $500 million in euro, both due 2032 58. The paper is being marketed in the low 10s on the dollar tranche and the low 9s in euro, against 7.8% on the Pan-European high-yield index 6. Fitch expects gross leverage to climb from 4.4x in 2025 to 6.1x in 2026 before easing to 3.0x by end-2027 5.
Fitch sees gross leverage peaking at 6.1x in 2026, easing to 3.0x by end-2027
- Gross leverage (x)
- Estimate
Data
| Gross leverage (x) | |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 4.4x |
| 2026 (estimate) | 6.1x |
| end-2027 (estimate) | 3x |
Bending Spoons paid about a tenth of the 2021 peaks for Miro and Airtable
- Peak valuation ($B)
- Paid by Bending Spoons ($B)
Data
| Peak valuation ($B) | Paid by Bending Spoons ($B) | |
|---|---|---|
| Miro | 17.5B | 1.36B |
| Airtable | 11B | 1.28B |
The math the credit must repeat
Miro carries about $600 million of annual recurring revenue, nearly 90% from business customers, so the price works out to roughly 2.3 times ARR, about 90% below the $17.5 billion Miro fetched in January 2022 37. Subscription revenue is 93% of group revenue in 2025, which is what supports the rating 5.
The number that is not there yet
The August 13 outlook was drawn from the August 12 perimeter and excludes Miro, so an investor buying near $47.50 is paying for guidance without the two newest acquisitions 41. Italian press puts group turnover for July 2025 to June 2026 at $3.92 billion with Airtable$1.285B — Airtable, private, latest valuation $1.285B and Miro inside, against $2.04 billion reported at June 30 41.
CEO Luca Ferrari says Bending Spoons buys to own long term; nobody has said what the deal means for Miro's staff or its 250,000 customers 27. The next earnings report is the first reading of both the rollover price and the leverage path.
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