In 2023, Telegram’s revenue reached $342 million with an operating loss of $108 million. Total after-tax losses amounted to about $173 million, the Financial Times (FT) reports, citing the messenger’s financial statements.
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The financial results, as the publication notes, have not been published anywhere before. According to these data, Telegram is wholly owned by Pavel Durov, who owns a multi-million dollar cryptocurrency fortune.
At the same time, the company still attracted around $2.4 billion in debt financing maturing in 2026. This amount included the placement of $1 billion in bonds in 2021, among investors being the sovereign funds of Abu Dhabi.
According to the company’s 2023 financial report, Durov personally purchased Telegram bonds worth at least $64 million, part of what he previously called an investment of “hundreds of millions” in the messenger’s development, the Financial Times notes.
The price of the company’s bonds fell by almost 10 percentage points and was trading at around 87 cents on the dollar. This corresponds to a yield of more than 16%, compared with around 96 cents before Durov’s arrest.
- Pavel Durov was arrested on 24 August at Paris airport, where he was flying from Baku. The next day, his detention was extended until 28 August.
- The case against the businessman was opened on July 8 and contains charges of 12 crimes against an “unidentified person.” These include refusal to cooperate with authorities and complicity in the possession and distribution of pornographic images of minors.
- On 28 August, Durov was released on bail and banned from leaving France.
Author:
Karina Pardaeva
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
