ByteDance Ltd., the Chinese owner of TikTok, is set to sign a US$10.8 billion ($13.85 billion) loan in what would be the largest-ever dollar-denominated corporate facility in Asia ex-Japan, according to people familiar with the matter.
About 20 lenders — comprising international and Chinese banks, including some branches — will fund the deal, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters.
The financing comes at a tumultuous time for Beijing-based ByteDance. The company is under intensifying scrutiny in the US and faces calls to sell TikTok, while at home it’s playing catchup in the artificial intelligence race. Even so, the loan is oversubscribed and has increased from the initial target size of US$9.5 billion — an indication that lenders are still eager to extend credit despite the headwinds.
ByteDance didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan were the coordinators of the latest financing, which carries a tenor of three years and can be extended to a maturity of up to five years. Proceeds of the deal will be partly used to refinance an existing US$5 billion dual-tranche facility the group had raised in 2021.
Founded in 2012, ByteDance has become one of the leading social media companies in the world, and is leveraging its large audience in China with the widely used Douyin to expand into new business areas such as ecommerce. Internationally, TikTok is also planning to roll out its live shopping platform in more European markets, after initial success in the US.
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The company’s other major foray, into generative AI and the development of large language models for ChatGPT-style apps, is a capital-intensive undertaking that demands billions of dollars of upfront investment.
