Alibaba will raise up to $5bn from international debt markets this week, in what is set to be one of China’s biggest dollar bond sales, even as regulators pursue the technology group for alleged anti-competitive practices.
The Chinese ecommerce group, which was founded by billionaire entrepreneur Jack Ma, announced the bond sale one month after proposals for the issue were first reported. Alibaba had previously been considering a bond sale of between $5bn and $8bn.
The planned fundraising followed Alibaba’s latest earnings report on Tuesday, in which the group posted a 37 per cent year-on year-increase in revenue for the quarter that ended in December. That exceeded analysts’ expectations but also marked one of the slowest quarters in terms of growth since Alibaba went public in 2014.