Tencent plans to sell billions of dollars in bonds globally

By Pei Li and Scott Murdoch

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese social media and gaming giant Tencent Holdings is testing the market's appetite for a U.S. dollar bond deal it plans to offer, according to a term sheet reviewed by Reuters.

The company said in a statement on Monday it planned to conduct an international offering of notes under a programme to certain professional investors and would use the proceeds raised for general corporate purposes.

The previously announced programme had a maximum limit of $20 billion, of which $12 billion of notes were already outstanding, the company said in a separate statement.

The limit means future deals for Tencent would have to be under $8 billion.

Tencent hired Bank of America, HSBC, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs as join global co-ordinators and the banks would lead a series of calls with fixed income investors on Tuesday, according to the term sheet.

Tencent and its advisers briefed Asian investors early on Tuesday and were due to speak with potential U.S. and European buyers at 11 p.m. Hong Kong time (1500 GMT), a source with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The timing and size of a potential bond deal would be finalised after the company and its advisers assess the level of demand from investors, the source said.

The source could not be named as the information had not been made public.

(Editing by Jacqueline Wong)