(Nov 26): SoftBank Group Corp will raise about ¥500 billion (US$3.2 billion or $4.16 billion) from retail investors at a coupon of 3.98% — the highest on a yen-denominated senior bond from the company in 15 years.
The rate on the unsecured seven-year note was set near the upper end of the previously announced range of 3.5%-4.1%, according to a term sheet from the company today. The last time it sold a bond with a coupon that high was in 2009 at 4.52%.
Mom-and-pop investors have been increasingly drawn to the corporate bond market in search of higher returns, after the Bank of Japan ended its negative interest policy in March 2024. Yields on Japanese government bonds, which serve as benchmark for corporate issues, have climbed amid rising inflation and market caution over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s fiscal spending package.
While higher yields have raised companies’ borrowing costs, their appetite for funding remains strong. Japanese firms have raised a record ¥2.79 trillion through yen-denominated retail bonds so far in 2025, surpassing the previous high last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Earlier this month, SoftBank Group announced second-quarter net income that beat analyst expectations, on gains from its investments in artificial intelligence, according to its financial disclosure statements. One of the biggest contributors to this growth was its Vision Fund, which benefited from rising valuations of unlisted AI-related holdings such as OpenAI.
See also: HP announces job cuts as profit outlook falls short of estimates
On the same day, the company disclosed that it had offloaded its entire stake in Nvidia Corp for US$5.8 billion.
SoftBank Group’s shares have fallen roughly 30% in the past month as global momentum in AI stocks began to cool. Its credit default swap spreads — a measure of credit risk — have widened to their highest level in about four months.
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