Alibaba extends help to firms hit by coronavirus spread, offers $2.86 billion in loans

Alibaba Group Holdings announced on Monday that its affiliate Ant Financial’s MYBank unit is out to lend 20 billion yuan ($2.86 billion) in loans to firms in China amid the coronavirus spread, with special offerings for companies in Hubei province.

According to Alibaba’s official statement posted on its official Weibo account, 10 billion yuan will be allotted for Hubei-based companies, the epicenter of the virus outbreak. It was indicated that those companies will be offered one-year loans on a zero interest rate basis for the first three months and a 20% discount on rates for the remaining nine months.

Companies outside Hubei across all China are also allotted with another 10 billion yuan of 12-month loans, with interest rates discounted by 20%.

Aside from the rate discounts, waiving of platform fees for merchants on its Tmall marketplace for the first 2 quarters of the year and two sets of one billion yuan funds to aid restaurants, logistics, and other businesses are prepared by the e-commerce giant.