Rakuten Group closed a ¥400B ($2.5B) yen bond offering on Friday, marking its biggest such issuance to date. Retail participants acquired ¥360B of the debt, while institutional buyers took the remaining ¥40B, according to Bloomberg.
The bonds mature in April 2032 and offer a 4.37% coupon on their 5.5-year tenor. Underwriters priced them at 200 basis points above the 10-year Japanese government bond benchmark. Daiwa Securities, which managed the sale, initially offered the securities to institutional investors at 170 to 180 basis points over government bonds, but the wider final spread reflected increased supply from other corporate issuers and corresponding market conditions. The offering drew demand equivalent to roughly 1.3 times the total size.
Retail investors can subscribe for the bonds between 19 and 28 October through brokers such as SMBC Nikko Securities.
The transaction underscores a broader shift in Japanese household investment behaviour. Through 2026, Japanese corporations have already sold approximately ¥3.2T in retail bonds, surpassing the previous year's total by more than 15%. This surge follows SoftBank Group's ¥1T retail bond offering in September, which remains the largest individual investor bond sale in Japanese history and carried a 4.75% coupon on a seven-year maturity.
According to Toshiyasu Ohashi, a visiting professor at Chiba University of Commerce, "Households are beginning to recognize the appeal of corporate bonds as inflation erodes the value of cash and deposits."
For Rakuten, the bond sale addresses upcoming capital requirements. The company returned to profitability in the April-June quarter for the first time in six years, though its mobile division posted a ¥33.1B loss during the same period. Significant debt repayments loom from 2027 onwards, including a $1.8B dollar bond maturing in February 2027. Management has indicated it will meet funding obligations through domestic and international bond issuances and asset monetization, Bloomberg reported.
Source: The Next Web
