Alibaba’s Hong Kong shares drop 5% after report of possible $5 billion convertible bond sale

Hong Kong-listed shares of Alibaba fell over 5% Thursday following a report that the Chinese tech giant is considering selling convertible bonds to raise $5 billion.

Shares ended the trading day 5.24% lower, after falling more than 6% earlier following the Bloomberg report.

In premarket trading in New York, Alibaba‘s NYSE-listed shares were down 2.21% at 04:51 a.m. ET.

Bloomberg, citing anonymous sources, said a bond offering could emerge as soon as this week.

CNBC could not independently confirm the report, and Alibaba did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Earlier this week, Chinese e-commerce rival JD.com took a similar step with a $1.75 billion convertible senior note offering due in five years with a 0.25% coupon.

Alibaba weathered a stormy 2023 that included an expansive corporate structure overhaul and culminated in an 86% tumble in fourth-quarter net profit.

In a bid to draw investors on the side, the company in February announced it was bolstering the size of its share buyback program by $25 billion.

This breaking news story is being updated.

— CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report