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Alibaba will raise up to $ 5 billion in international debt markets this week, in what is expected to be one of China’s biggest dollar bond sales, even as regulators sue the tech group over claims. suspected anti-competitive practices.
The Chinese e-commerce group, which was founded by billionaire entrepreneur Jack Ma, announced the bond sale a month after proposals for the show were released. Alibaba was previously considering a sale of bonds from between 5 and 8 billion dollars.
Planned fundraiser followed Alibaba’s latest income Tuesday’s report, in which the group posted a 37 percent year-over-year increase in revenue for the quarter that ended in December. It exceeded analysts’ expectations, but also marked one of the slowest quarters in terms of growth since Alibaba went public in 2014.
The bond offer proposed by the group also comes as it faces a crackdown from the Chinese authorities. Regulators suspended the $ 37 billion market listing of payments subsidiary Ant Group in November and launched a antitrust investigation at Alibaba in December. The New York-listed shares of the e-commerce group are down about a fifth since late October.
Mr. Ma intervened almost entirely out of the public spotlight since the cancellation of the ant initial public offering, which was to be the tallest in the world ever.
Alibaba had $ 44 billion in cash at the end of September, much of which was held ashore in Chinese renminbi. The proceeds from the $ 5 billion bond will be used to increase working capital and repay its offshore debt, according to a regulatory filing in the United States.
Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and China International Capital are among the underwriters in the bond sale, according to the filing.
Alibaba’s bond issue builds on similar moves from Big Tech groups, including Chinese peers Tencent and Google, which took advantage of historically low interest rates last year to raise billions of dollars.
The company faces domestic competition from a fast-growing rival Pinduoduo in its main activity of electronic commerce, while Meituan seeks to overtake Alibaba-owned Ele.me in the Chinese food delivery market.
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