Alibaba raises US$5 billion in dual currency bond deal

Alibaba has raised US$5 billion in a dual-currency bond, China's biggest eCommerce company said on Wednesday, marking the largest deal of its kind in the Asia-Pacific this year.

The company priced an offering of aggregate principal amount of $2.65 billion in U.S. dollar-denominated notes and 17 billion yuan (US$2.35 billion) worth of offshore yuan-denominated bonds.

The dollar tranche consisted of 5.5-year, 10.5-year and 30-year bonds, and the final pricing was 25 basis points cheaper than first flagged to investors on Tuesday, according to a term sheet seen by Reuters.

The coupons on the dollar bonds were 4.875% for the 5.5-year bond, 5.25% for the 10.5-year and 5.625% for the longer-dated bond.

The offshore yuan bond pricing was also significantly tighter across the 3.5-year, 5-year, 10-year and 20-year tranches.

Alibaba intends to use the net proceeds from the offering of the notes for general corporate purposes, including repayment of offshore debt and share repurchases.

Walmart raises annual forecasts again, signals holiday shopping surge beyond essentials

Walmart on Tuesday raised its annual sales and profit forecast for the third consecutive time, as people bought more groceries and merchandise, a sign the world's largest retailer continues to gain market share ahead of the holidays.

Shares of Walmart, which are up nearly 60% this year, rose as much as 4.5% to a record high of US$87.88 in early trading.

The retailer is among the first major U.S. chains to provide insight into the all-important holiday quarter and how consumers are planning to spend as inflation ebbs.

"In the U.S., in-store volumes grew, pickup from store grew faster, and delivery from store grew even faster than that," Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said.

Though inflation has not made much headway in recent months, it is on a downward trend, raising purchasing power. Walmart said it saw share gains across income cohorts mainly led by upper-income households, which make more than US$100,000 in annual income.

The retail bellwether now forecast fiscal 2025 consolidated net sales to rise in the range of 4.8% to 5.1%, compared with prior expectations of 3.75% to 4.75% growth. It also expects annual adjusted profit per share to be between US$2.42 and US$2.47, compared with its previous forecast of US$2.35 and US$2.43.

China’s ‘mind-blowingly’ cheap shopping app Temu hits roadblocks in south-east Asia

Chinese online marketplace Temu has enjoyed explosive international growth off the back of an eye-catching and often absurdly cheap range of products, but those cut-price tactics have met increasing roadblocks as it seeks to conquer new markets in south-east Asia.

Indonesia ordered Temu to be taken down from app stores in October, a move it said would protect the country’s smaller merchants. Last week, Vietnam threatened to ban Temu and fellow Chinese-owned fast-fashion outlet Shein by the end of the month, saying they had not been approved to do business in the country.

The flood of cheaper Chinese-made products – often with minimal import taxes – has damaged local vendors and manufacturers, who cannot beat the speed, quality or prices offered online, according to Simon Torring, co-founder of market insights firm Cube.

“Temu has become the lightning rod for every regulator, everywhere now getting worried about whether cross-border import rules should be changed,” he said.

Poom Chotikavan, director of operations at Taksa Toys in Thailand, has struggled to find a local manufacturer to make children’s toys because so many suppliers have gone out of business. Nearly 2,000 Thai factories across all industries closed and more than 50,000 workers lost their jobs in the last financial year, Reuters reported, in part due to greater Chinese competition and higher costs.