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 Looks to Raise Up to $8 Billion in Bond Sale
The company said it would use the proceeds “primarily to refinance its existing credit facilities.”
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Jason Del Rey has been a business journalist for 15 years and has covered Amazon, Walmart, and the e-commerce industry for the last decade. He was a senior correspondent at Vox.
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.
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