Alibaba said to get US$43b of orders in debut bond offering
Alibaba Group has US$43 billion of orders from investors in a debut bond offering, more than five times what the company was said to be seeking, people with knowledge of the deal said.
Alibaba Group has US$43 billion of orders from investors in a debut bond offering, more than five times what the company was said to be seeking, people with knowledge of the deal said.
Asia's biggest internet company was scheduled to sell the debt in a seven-part transaction as soon as the close of business on Thursday US time.
Alibaba was planning to raise as much as US$8 billion to repay a loan, other people with knowledge of the offering said last week.
The order book signals high demand for securities issued by the Hangzhou company after a record US$25 billion public stock sale in September. Alibaba, which has US$11 billion in loans and credit lines, will use proceeds from the bond sale to refinance some credit agreements, it said in a November 13 statement. An US$8 billion sale would eclipse a US$6.5 billion issue last month by Bank of China to become the biggest dollar-denominated offering by an Asian company.
While bond investors have been known to pad orders to ensure they get a bigger piece of securities in high demand, the size of Alibaba's book is rivalling those for other large offerings during the past two years, including sales by Apple and Verizon Communications.
For Apple's US$17 billion offering in April 2013, the largest corporate-bond sale at the time, investors put in orders for US$50 billion. Verizon attracted buyers for as much as US$100 billion before its record US$49 billion offering in September 2013.
Separately, Alibaba founder Jack Ma Yun yesterday said the firm will set up an international version of its e-commerce marketplace Taobao to serve buyers worldwide in multiple languages, including English and Chinese, Reuters reported.
