Alibaba raises $5 billion in dual currency bond deal

By Scott Murdoch

(Reuters) -Alibaba has raised $5 billion in a dual-currency bond, China's biggest e-commerce company said on Wednesday, marking the largest deal of its kind in the Asia-Pacific this year.

The company priced an offering of aggregate principal amount of $2.65 billion in U.S. dollar-denominated notes and 17 billion yuan ($2.35 billion) worth of offshore yuan-denominated bonds.

The dollar tranche consisted of 5.5-year, 10.5-year and 30-year bonds, and the final pricing was 25 basis points cheaper than first flagged to investors on Tuesday, according to a term sheet seen by Reuters.

The coupons on the dollar bonds were 4.875% for the 5.5-year bond, 5.25% for the 10.5-year and 5.625% for the longer-dated bond.

The offshore yuan bond pricing was also significantly tighter across the 3.5-year, 5-year, 10-year and 20-year tranches.

Alibaba intends to use the net proceeds from the offering of the notes for general corporate purposes, including repayment of offshore debt and share repurchases.

The deal is the first time the company has tapped the dollar bond market since 2021, according to data compiled by LSEG, and also the largest corporate bond in Asia Pacific this year.

Demand for the dollar bonds from investors globally reached $14.6 billion, according to a bookrunners message sent once the deal was finalised.

Most of the dollar bonds were bought by Asia-Pacific-based investors in each of the tranches, the message showed.

Reuters had earlier reported that the U.S. dollar tranche would consist of 5.5-year, 10.5-year and 30-year bonds, citing a term sheet. The report said Alibaba was also working on a 3.5-year, 5-year, 10-year and 20-year offshore yuan tranche.

The company's shares were down 2% in Hong Kong trading on Wednesday but are 11.4% higher year-to-date.

($1 = 7.2385 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Scott Murdoch in Sydney and Archishma Iyer; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu, Alan Barona and Janane Venkatraman)