Alibaba Looks to Raise Up to $8 Billion in Bond Sale

Fresh off the biggest IPO in history, Chinese Internet giant Alibaba Group is looking to raise up to $8 billion in a bond offering, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Alibaba announced plans for the bond sale on Thursday, but did not provide details on the amount it is seeking to raise. The company said it would use the proceeds “primarily to refinance its existing credit facilities.” Bloomberg first reported the $8 billion amount.

Following the announcement, Standard & Poor’s gave Alibaba a credit rating of “A-plus” or the fifth-highest grade, while Moody’s gave Alibaba an equivalent “A1” rating. These ratings are higher than those for fellow publicly-traded Chinese Internet companies Baidu and Tencent.

The announcement comes two months after Alibaba raised $25 billion in the largest-ever IPO. The company, which operates several online shopping marketplaces including Taobao and Tmall, has seen its stock price rise more than 20 percent since its opening price, to nearly $114 a share.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Will you join us?

Our biggest supporters are our readers — and we’re so grateful to everyone who has made a contribution during our September campaign. We’re less than 1,000 contributions away from reaching our goal for the month, which in turn will allow us to say yes more often when our incredible journalists come to us with questions they want to answer and projects they want to pursue. Will you make a contribution before the month ends and support our policy coverage through 2024 and beyond?

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via