By Scott Murdoch and Yantoultra Ngui
SYDNEY/SINGAPORE, June 8 (Reuters) – China’s Tencent Holdings is aiming to raise $4 billion via an imminent sale of both a U.S. dollar bond and an offshore yuan bond, two sources with direct knowledge of the plans said on Monday.
The internet and gaming giant returned to global debt markets last year, raising 9 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) with an offshore yuan bond in September, its first bond deal in four years. Its last dollar bond was a $4.15 billion issue in April 2021.
The sales could be launched on Tuesday, term sheets showed without indicating potential deal values.
Calls with global investors began on Monday, said the sources, who were not authorised to speak to media and declined to be identified.
Tencent said in a filing that it would be issuing notes as part of its $30 billion global medium-term note programme and that proceeds would be used for general corporate purposes. It declined to comment on details of the offering.For the dollar bond, Tencent is looking to sell 10- and 20-year notes, while the offshore yuan bond is likely to be offered in 10- and 30-year notes, according to the term sheets. Offshore yuan refers to yuan that is traded outside mainland China.
The notes are expected to be rated A1 by Moody’s, A+ by S&P and A by Fitch.
JPMorgan, HSBC and Morgan Stanley are the joint global coordinators for the proposed dollar notes, while Bank of China, CITIC Securities, HSBC, ICBC Asia and JPMorgan are joint global coordinators for the offshore yuan notes.
S&P Global Ratings said in a statement that Tencent has low debt ratios and forecast it would maintain a net cash position over the next two years.
($1 = 6.7841 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting by Scott Murdoch, Yantoultra Ngui; Additional reporting by Nichiket Sunil; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus and Edwina Gibbs)
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