By Prudence Ho
Bankers still feeling the buzz of Alibaba Group's blockbuster
listing last month have been casting around for the next big tech
deal out of China. If the appetite by creditors to lend to Xiaomi
Inc. is anything to go by, this four-year-old smartphone maker
could be it.
Xiaomi, which sells more smartphones than even Samsung
Electronics Co. and Apple Inc. in China, has borrowed $1 billion
from 29 banks for a three-year loan, its first move to tap overseas
funds for cash. The smartphone maker has moved beyond China to sell
in India and Indonesia, and a person familiar with the loan said it
is raising the funds from the loan to expand overseas.
The three-year, $1 billion loan is set to close Friday, with
Brazil's Banco do Brasil to Japan's Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ
among the 29 that have joined Wall Street and Chinese banks as
lenders, people familiar with the matter said.
The lead bankers on the loan are Deutsche Bank AG, J.P. Morgan
Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley, with Credit Suisse Group and
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. also taking part.
In attracting so many banks to its loan, Xiaomi has beaten
Alibaba, which borrowed $8 billion last year from 22 banks, many of
whom, bankers said, were eager to get in on the Chinese e-commerce
giant's IPO mandate.
Write to Prudence Ho at prudence.ho@wsj.com
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