China's Alibaba to raise $4.5 billion through convertible bonds, repurchase shares

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd said on Thursday the Chinese e-commerce giant would sell convertible bonds to raise about $4.5 billion and plans to use some of the proceeds to repurchase American Depositary Shares.

The company said it expects to give initial purchasers in the notes offering an option to purchase up to an additional $500 million of notes.

The repurchase and future buybacks will be funded by the net proceeds of the notes offering and other cash on hand, it said.

The e-commerce giant's Hong Kong-listed shares closed down 5.2 per cent after Bloomberg News first reported a potential bond offering earlier in the day. But its U.S.-listed shares were marginally down in early trading.