Alibaba's payment affiliate Ant Financial planning to raise $2 to $3 billion in debt: Source

Ant Financial Services Group, the payment affiliate of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, is in talks with banks to raise $2 billion to $3 billion in debt, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said on Thursday.

The world`s largest financial technology firm plans to use some part of the proceeds to fund its acquisition of US money-transfer company MoneyGram International Inc, announced last month, said the person.

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The new round of funding, if completed, could also be used to boost its holding in other companies, including Indian mobile e-commerce website Paytm, the person said, declining to be named as the talks are not public yet.

"It is the market practice for a globalised company like Ant Financial to raise debt in US dollars," a representative of Ant Financial told Reuters, when contacted for comment on technology news website The Information`s report the company was looking to raise more than $3 billion in debt. 

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