Mortgage lender Better rallies on convertible debt restructuring deal with SoftBank

** Better Home & Finance's BETR.O shares up 24% to $12.77 on Mon after announcing debt restructuring deal with Japan's SoftBank 9984.T

** BETR shares on course for biggest daily pct gain since their 2023 debut

** New York-based online mortgage lender early Mon announced retirement of ~$530 mln of convertible notes in exchange for $110 mln cash payment and issuance of $155 mln of new debt to SoftBank subsidiary SB Northstar

** The convertible notes were to mature in Aug 2028 and paid 1% annual interest. Instead, the new debt is due Dec 31, 2028 and comes with 6% annual interest rate, and payable in-kind (PIK), at BETR's option, or in cash

** Transaction to create ~$265 mln of positive pre-tax equity value for the co and its shareholders, CEO Vishal Garg said in the statement

** BETR shares plummeted more than 90% to close at $1.15 in their Aug 24, 2023 debut after co went public in a SPAC merger

** About a year later, co effected a 1-for-50 reverse stock split

** Co, which hit the headlines in Dec 2021 after it laid off 900 employees via Zoom, has ~15.2 mln shares outstanding and 6.6 mln shares of public float, per LSEG data

** Roughly 170k shares have changed hands so far on the session vs stock's 10-DMA volume of about 53k, per LSEG. Stock was trading around $22 a year ago