Alibaba Group Holding is selling up to US$5 billion worth of convertible bonds to fund its share buy-backs, as leaders of the Chinese tech giant declared e-commerce and cloud computing as its core businesses in a move “towards strategic clarity”.
The Hangzhou-based firm, which owns the South China Morning Post, said it expects to raise close to US$4.5 billion from initial sales, while giving purchasers the option to buy up to an additional US$500 million of notes, according to filings made to the Hong Kong and New York stock exchanges on Friday and Thursday.
The offering, which is Asia’s largest-ever convertible bond transaction and the world’s biggest since 2008, has received positive market response and was oversubscribed multiple times, according to people familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity because the information is private.
Alibaba’s latest move demonstrates the management’s confidence in the company’s…
