A view of the office building of Alibaba (China) Technology Co. Ltd on the outskirts of Hangzhou, Zhejiang province
A view of the office building of Alibaba (China) Technology Co. Ltd on the outskirts of Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, November 10, 2009. REUTERS

China’s version of Amazon.com or eBay just received loans worth $8 billion from nine major banks.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the privately-owned Hangzhou-based online B2B, online retail and e-payment company, closed the deal on April 30, according to an anonymous source who spoke to the Wall Street Journal.

The deal breaks down like this: $2.5 billion on a three-year loan, $4 billion on a five-year loan and the rest as a three-year revolving credit facility. The nine banks reportedly involved in the deal are: JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM); Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS); Deutsche Bank AG; HSBC Holdings plc (NYSE:HBC); DBS Group Holdings Ltd (SGX:D05); Credit Suisse Group AG; Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C); Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX:ANZ); and Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd.

Alibaba is already larger than Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq:AMZN) and eBay Inc. (Nasdaq:EBAY) combined, with $170 billion in sales last year. It should be no surprise then that some of the world’s largest lending institutions would be paying close attention to Alibaba’s prospects in a rapidly expanding economy with a growing class of conspicuous consumers.

The news comes in the wake of a deal announced this week between Alibaba and Weibo, a subsidiary of the online media company Sina (Nasdaq:SINA), China’s (much larger) answer to Twitter Inc. Alibaba bought an 18 percent stake in Weibo for $586 million.