China's Baidu to issue yuan-denominated bonds as US$600 million debt comes due
Baidu plans to issue yuan-denominated bonds in offshore markets to repay existing debt and fund general corporate purposes, according to an exchange filing on Wednesday.
Advertisement
The exact size, interest rate and maturity of the offering would be determined later based on market conditions, the Beijing-based company said.
It would be Baidu's first bond offering since 2021 and comes ahead of a US$600 million debt maturing on April 7, according to Bloomberg data.
Moody's on Wednesday assigned an A3 senior unsecured rating to the proposed notes, which it said reflected Baidu's strong position in China's artificial intelligence (AI) and online advertising sectors, plus its steady free cash flow. The grade also considered its disciplined acquisitions and resilience, as well as the challenges posed by intense market competition and high investment needs for AI expansion, the company added.
'The proposed issuance will extend Baidu's debt maturity profile, provide financial flexibility and expand its capacity to address its funding needs over the medium term,' said Shawn Xiong, a Moody's vice-president and senior analyst.
Advertisement
'We expect the company will continue to maintain its prudent financial discipline and a solid credit profile, which will provide buffers against competition and its continued investment in AI.'
Baidu last month reported a 2 per cent decline in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2024 and a 1 per cent drop for the year, as China's sluggish economic growth weighed on advertising spending. While its AI business remains a bright spot, competition has intensified.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- South China Morning Post
Automation to Autonomy: AWS Leads the Leap with Agentic AI Experience Centre
[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] It is no exaggeration that artificial intelligence (AI) has permeated all aspects of life, but a recent report published by OpenAI revealed that Gen Z and millennials have turned to AI chatbots for life coaching, seeking career and relationship guidance, as well as mental and physical consultation. Despite the existing divide in how different generations adopt AI into daily activities, this phenomenon proves the technology's effectiveness outside the corporate world, also signaling a revolutionary shift in the impact for businesses in the near future. Unlike traditional AI that simply answers questions and collates data, agentic AI can be described as a proactive assistant which understands, decides, and acts on the user's behalf with minimal oversight. Given access to tools, data, and the infinite resources on the internet, the autonomous system learns to think and act from experience, boasting the potential to navigate complex tasks and oversee processes from end to end. Reimagining AI: Beyond Simple Automation Ishit Vachhrajani, Global Head of Enterprise Strategy at Amazon Web Services (AWS), compared AI agents to his most independent, high-agency employees in a blog post. With the promise to assess situations, make judgment calls, and deliver human-like results and machine-scale actions, agentic AI is poised to drive efficiency and innovation across industries like finance, healthcare, retail, and customer service. The distinction between conventional AI and agentic systems represents a quantum leap in technology, comparable to the introduction of the personal computer and the internet - AI agents can operate at a level of independence previously unseen. This evolution allows humans to switch from being process operators to learning partners, somewhat like acquiring an extra colleague to get work done. Gone are the days of spoon-feeding information to AI to deal with bite-sized tasks, humans can now focus on strategic decisions and creative thinking, leaving agents to manage routine workflows.
RTHK
4 hours ago
- RTHK
Evergrande to delist from Hong Kong stock market
Evergrande to delist from Hong Kong stock market Evergrande says the city's stock exchange has decided to delist its shares per listing rules. File photo: AFP China Evergrande Group has announced its shares will be delisted from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, as court-appointed liquidators warned of the real estate firm's debt load was far bigger than earlier estimated. In a filing on Tuesday, the company said the stock exchange has decided to cancel its listing from August 25 – as trading had not resumed by July 28 – and it would not apply for a review of the decision. "The last day of the listing of the shares will be on August 22, 2025 and the listing of the Shares will be cancelled with effect from 9am on August 25, 2025," the filing read. "All shareholders, investors and potential investors of the company should note that after the last listing date, whilst the share certificates of the shares will remain valid, the shares will not be listed on, and will not be tradeable on the stock exchange." Hong Kong's High Court issued a winding-up order for Evergrande in January 2024, ruling that the debt-laden company had failed to come up with a viable restructuring plan. Trading of its shares has since been suspended. In an attached progress report, liquidators Edward Middleton and Tiffany Wong said a "holistic" restructuring is out of reach. They also said Evergrande's debt load exceeded the US$27.5 billion of liabilities disclosed in its financial statement in December 2022. "As at July 31, 2025, this claims' discovery exercise had resulted in 187 proofs of debt being submitted, by which claims of approximately HK$350 billion (US$45 billion) in aggregate have been made," the document read. But the latest figure was not to be taken as final, the liquidators added.
South China Morning Post
4 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Quad alliance risks unravelling as Trump strains ties with India and Japan
Beijing must be watching with satisfaction as US President Donald Trump has, in less than 200 days, come close to unravelling one of the few foreign policy legacies of his first term: the fragile coalition countering China in the Indo-Pacific. Advertisement The rationale behind Trump's deliberate straining of ties with India and Japan – two of Washington's most vital regional partners in balancing Beijing – through tariffs, sanctions threats and incendiary rhetoric remains opaque, likely driven more by domestic political posturing than strategic coherence. Yet the damage is both tangible and potentially lasting, placing the strategic viability of the Quad –Washington's four-way military pact with Japan, India and Australia – under the most severe test since its revival in 2017. At the same time, it has bolstered perceptions among authoritarian regimes that the US is in terminal decline. Since April, Trump has slapped 25 per cent 'reciprocal tariffs' on India and threatened an additional 25 per cent in secondary sanctions over its continued imports of Russian oil, effectively raising duties to 50 per cent. While the US leader claimed on Monday that the steep tariffs had dealt a 'big blow' to Moscow's beleaguered economy, the move has plunged US-India relations to their lowest point since 1998, when Delhi conducted its nuclear tests and faced an international backlash. Advertisement Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who skilfully navigated relations with Trump during his first term and was among the first foreign leaders to visit the White House following Trump's return, was clearly taken aback by the tariffs and the US leader's overtures to India's arch-rival, Pakistan.
