Alibaba’s bond sale attracts US$38 billion worth of orders as investors shrug off antitrust fears and look to future of China’s booming e-commerce industry
- An avalanche of orders from a veritable Who’s Who of investors allowed the e-commerce giant to price its debt tighter than initial guidance
- The bond sale comes after Alibaba reported a 37 per cent surge in revenue for the quarter ended December
Alibaba Group Holding’s US$5 billion bond attracted an avalanche of orders from fixed-income investors, peaking at US$38 billion, on growing confidence that the e-commerce behemoth will emerge relatively unscathed from an antitrust investigation.
The scramble to buy the bonds allowed the platform company to sell its new dollar-denominated debt at a more advantageous price than initially expected, according to people familiar with the transaction.
“I’ve long been declaring that the regulatory threat is overblown, so I was supportive of the new dollar bonds,” said Brock Silvers, chief investment officer at Hong Kong-based investment firm Kaiyuan Capital.
The Hangzhou-based firm’s offering is its first foray into international debt markets since 2017 when it sold US$7 billion worth of bonds. The wait for Alibaba to come back to markets created pent up demand among investors, the people familiar said.
