Alibaba looks to raise $5bn through bond sale amid regulatory scrutiny
06 January, 2021
China's Alibaba ideas to raise in least $5 billion through the sale of a good US dollar-denominated relationship this month, sources said, amid regulatory scrutiny of co-founder Jack Ma's empire.
Based on investor response, proceeds may reach $8bn which the e-commerce giant will probably use for basic corporate expenditure, one of the people said.
The fundraising is a test of investor sentiment towards Alibaba, coming weeks after an October speech from billionaire Mr Ma about regulation stifling innovation that resulted in the halting of affiliate Ant Group's $37bn currency markets listing.
Mr Ma's absence from people view in the intervening time features fuelled social media speculation over his whereabouts.
The bond sale plan, like the timeline, is not finalised and is at the mercy of change, the sources said, declining to be named.
Alibaba declined to comment.
Since Mr Ma's speech, Chinese regulators have begun an antitrust probe into Alibaba and ordered FinTech Ant to change its lending and other consumer finance businesses, like the creation of a holding company to meet up capital requirements.
Regulators are actually also reviewing Ant's collateral investments in a large number of firms and considering whether to teach the firm to divest many of them, Reuters reported last month.
Alibaba's international bond supplying, if finalised, would be the group's third, Refinitiv info showed. It sold an $8bn US dollar bond in 2014, and a $7bn tranche in 2017, the info showed.
With its most up-to-date float, Alibaba will join a slew of Asian companies that contain taken advantage of cheaper borrowing costs and abundant liquidity in global markets in recent months.
The conditions of the offering were not immediately known. Marketing records were apt to be available the moment in a few days, and that the tenure of the relationship may very well be 10 years, according to two of the options.
Source: www.thenationalnews.com
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