Navient Completes $500 Million Note Offering at 9.375%
Turnaround
Company Background
Navient, the Herndon, Virginia–based education finance company with roughly $48 billion in assets, operates two structurally distinct businesses: a run-off portfolio of federally guaranteed FFELP student loans and a growing private education lending operation conducted under the Earnest brand. The FFELP portfolio—still the company's largest asset at $27.2 billion as of March 31, 2026—earns a thin net interest margin of 0.65% and shrinks by design as borrowers repay. Earnest, meanwhile, originated $818 million in private student loans in the first quarter of 2026, a 61% increase from the year-ago period, and the company has presented this growth as the centerpiece of what it calls a Phase 2 strategy.
The financial trajectory heading into this offering was improving, but the runway behind it was rough. A full-year 2025 GAAP net loss of $80 million gave way to a GAAP net income of $17 million in the first quarter of 2026, the first quarterly profit in three periods. Private education loan delinquencies greater than 30 days fell to 5.5% of loans in repayment at March 31, 2026, down from 6.4% a year earlier, and net charge-offs moderated in the consumer lending segment. An adjusted tangible equity ratio of 8.9% as of March 31, 2026 is not in distress territory, though the company carries approximately $5.3 billion in senior unsecured holding-company debt against total equity of $2.4 billion.
The company is simultaneously undergoing a leadership transition. Edward J. Bramson, the Board Chair who led the divestiture of both the healthcare services business (2024) and the government services business (February 2025), was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer effective June 5, 2026, succeeding David Yowan. Bramson will hold the chair and CEO positions simultaneously, concentrating authority at the top as the company attempts to shift from managed run-off to origination-led growth.
What Was Disclosed
On May 29, 2026, Navient completed a public offering of $500,000,000 aggregate principal amount of its 9.375% Senior Notes due 2031, issued under a shelf registration statement filed with the SEC on May 2, 2025, with a related prospectus supplement filed May 27, 2026. The notes were issued pursuant to an Underwriting Agreement dated May 26, 2026, with BofA Securities, Barclays Capital, J.P. Morgan Securities, and RBC Capital Markets serving as representatives of the underwriters. The notes are governed by a Seventeenth Supplemental Indenture to Navient's base indenture originally dated July 18, 2014, with The Bank of New York Mellon as trustee.