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Alphabet eyes $3 billion Hong Kong, Singapore bond sale, sources say

Reuters
Alphabet eyes $3 billion Hong Kong, Singapore bond sale, sources say

By Scott Murdoch, Yantoultra Ngui and Roshan ‌Thomas

Nov 11 (Reuters) - Alphabet is looking to raise about $3 billion equivalent through its first bond sales in Hong Kong and Singapore ​dollars, two ‌people with knowledge of the matter said, testing Asian investor demand after ‌an AI-led selloff in global markets earlier this month.

One of the people added that the sales would likely raise at least $2.2 billion, with Alphabet considering ‌minimum sizes of HK$8 billion ($1 billion) for the Hong Kong dollar portion and S$1.5 billion ($1.2 billion) for the Singapore dollar portion.

The final size, timing and pricing have not been set, the person added. The people declined to be named as the ⁠matter is private.

Alphabet has mandated HSBC and JPMorgan as joint global coordinators, ‌according to a term sheet seen ⁠by Reuters earlier Wednesday.

Bank of China (Hong Kong), ICBC (Asia) and Standard Chartered are also working ​on the Hong Kong dollar sale, while DBS, OCBC and UOB are working on the Singapore dollar portion, the sheet showed.

The Hong Kong ​dollar bonds could have two-, five- and 10-year maturities, while the Singapore ​dollar bonds ‌could have two-, five-, 10- and 30-year maturities, the sheet showed.

Alphabet did not ​immediately respond to a request for comment.

The sale would add to Alphabet's ⁠borrowing this year as it increases spending on ‌data centres and ​other AI computing infrastructure.

Alphabet said in an October ​29 filing that it had issued $45 billion of US dollar-denominated notes and $35.8 billion of foreign currency notes in the nine months to end-September for general corporate purposes.

Alphabet last week raised 6 billion euros ($6.7 billion) through a euro-denominated ‌bond sale. It also sold $25 billion of US dollar bonds in August and A$5.5 billion ($3.8 billion) Australian dollar bonds in the same month.

Other large technology companies ‌have also tapped ​debt markets. Last week, Meta completed a $15 billion US bond sale and Oracle sold $10 billion of bonds.

($1 = 7.8459 Hong Kong dollars)

($1 = 1.2816 Singapore dollars)

($1 = 0.8957 euros)

($1 = 1.4541 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Roshan Thomas in Bengaluru, Scott Murdoch in Sydney and Yantoultra ‌Ngui in Hong Kong; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Kevin Buckland)