Alibaba sells its first dollar bonds since 2021
ALIBABA Group Holding sold its first public dollar bonds in nearly four years, part of a dual-currency transaction by the Chinese internet heavyweight to repay offshore debt and repurchase equity.
The company issued US$2.65 billion of dollar notes in three parts on Tuesday, according to a person with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified discussing private details.
The longest portion of the offering, a 30-year bond, priced 1.05 percentage point above comparable Treasuries. Initial talk was a premium of around 1.30 percentage point.
The deal’s order book peaked above US$18 billion.
Alibaba also priced 18 billion yuan (S$3.34 billion) of notes offshore in four tranches, a separate person said. Bloomberg News reported last week that the company’s dual-currency offering could raise about US$5 billion. Alibaba in May sold a US$5 billion of convertible notes in a private offering.
A spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment.
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The offering comes as Chinese issuers have bolstered dollar-bond issuance as the country unveiled fresh stimulus efforts and the Federal Reserve started cutting its policy rate in the US.
Such notes issued by Chinese borrowers more than doubled in October from a year earlier. It also occurred as spreads on Asian firms’ dollar notes were recently at their lowest-ever levels in the secondary market.
Meanwhile, Alibaba last week reported anemic growth in its core Chinese e-commerce business for the quarter ended Sept 30, dragging on results that benefited from progress from international and cloud divisions. BLOOMBERG
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