Acquisitive Japanese telco Softbank has priced a Y450bn (US$3.82bn) bond due February 2022 at par to fund investments and loans.
The notes carry a 2.5% coupon and mark the company’s second subordinated unsecured corporate bond, shortly after its first…
Acquisitive Japanese telco Softbank has priced a Y450bn (US$3.82bn) bond due February 2022 at par to fund investments and loans.
The notes carry a 2.5% coupon and mark the company’s second subordinated unsecured corporate bond, shortly after its first was issued in December.
It is mainly being offered to retail investors in Japan and is set to close on 9 February.
The underwriters are Nomura, Daiwa, Mizuho, SMBC Nikko, Mitsubishi UFJ, Morgan Stanley, SBI, IwaiCosmo, Okasan and Tokai Tokyo.
The Japan Credit Rating Agency gave the debt a BBB+ rating.
Softbank has made a number of online and media content acquisitions in recent months to diversify its portfolio and branch out from Japan’s saturated mobile market.
It led a financing round of about US$600m earlier this month for the owner of mobile taxi-booking app operator KuaiDi Dache. Other recent investments include Southeast Asian mobile taxi-hailing app GrabTaxi; Indian ecommerce company Snapdeal; taxi app Ola Cabs; real estate platform Housing.com; and Indonesian ecommerce firm Tokopedia.
Meanwhile, Softbank announced plans last week to streamline operations in Japan by merging its domestic telecoms subsidiaries into one unit. It expects to complete the merger of Softbank Mobile – which will be the surviving company – with Softbank BB, Softbank Telecom and Ymobile by 1 April 2015, subject to shareholder approvals.
