ByteDance has landed a $29.6bn loan, the second-largest in Asia this year and roughly three times what the TikTok owner borrowed offshore in 2024. Banks put in more than $30bn of orders for a facility that started life at $20bn.
The terms were first reported by Bloomberg. Citigroup and JPMorgan are coordinating the deal, which runs for three years with an option to extend to five, and it has not yet been signed while banks confirm allocations.
The pricing is the part lenders will be arguing about. ByteDance is paying an opening margin of 68 basis points over SOFR, down from the 85 basis points it paid on its last offshore facility, which means it borrowed half again as much money at a materially lower price.
That happened in a year when Asia’s loan market has otherwise been slow. Demand for this particular borrower has moved in the opposite direction to the market around it.
The trajectory is steep. ByteDance raised $10.8bn from around 20 lenders in 2024, and was in preliminary talks over a record $20bn facility as recently as June, a target the final deal has now overshot by nearly half.
