HONG KONG: Goldman Sachs has joined Alibaba Group's $8 billion loan with $500 million in financing, Basis Point reported on Monday.
The agreement comes ahead the Chinese e-commerce company's IPO, which is expected at the end of this year or early 2014.
Goldman has joined as mandated lead arranger and bookrunner on the three-tranche loan, which has a June 7 deadline, Basis Point reported, citing an anonymous source.
Nine banks were already mandated for the $8 billion loan, with other banks invited to join in as part of the syndication.
The $8 billion financing is split into a $2.5 billion, three-year term loan, a $1.5 billion three-year revolving credit and a $4 billion five-year term loan. The revolver is not syndicated, Basis Point said.
Banks have been invited to join the three and five-year term loan tranches on a pro-rata basis on three levels ranging from $200 million to $500 million.
For commitments of $500 million and the titles of mandated lead arranger and bookrunner, lenders get fees of 150 basis points and 225 basis points on the three and five-year tranches, respectively, the Thomson Reuters publication reported.
Alibaba is refinancing its outstanding loans with a new facility to free itself from covenants that capped its borrowings to $4 billion.
