According to two persons familiar with the matter, Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, plans to raise US$10 billion (more than A$14 billion) on Thursday in its first-ever bond offering as it aims to finance share buybacks and investments to restructure its business.
Investor orders for the offering, which included bonds with maturities ranging from five to forty years, exceeded US$30 billion, the sources claimed.
They said that the longer-dated bonds were in higher demand.
An inquiry for comment from Meta was not answered.
Earlier this week, other IT behemoths including Apple and Intel also sold bonds, raising a total of US$5.5 billion and US$6 billion, respectively.
With recession worries and competition pressures impacting on its sales of digital ads, Meta set a dour forecast and reported its first-ever quarterly revenue decline in late July.
As it pushes forward with its aspirations for the metaverse, a transformational bet that caused the company to change its name to Meta last year, its free cash flow has been declining.
Meta generated US$4.45 billion in free cash flow in the second quarter that ended on June 30 compared to US$8.51 billion in the same period last year.
Moody’s assigned the firm a “A1” rating, while S&P assigned it a “AA-” rating with a “stable” outlook.
Merrill Bank of America ynch, Barclays, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley were the joint bookrunners on the Meta bond offering.
