SoftBank Group plans $4.5 billion bond targeting retail investors
TOKYO (Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp said it will issue 500 billion yen (£3.4 billion or $4.5b in USD) in bonds, its largest ever such issue, targeting Japan’s retail investors.
The six-year bonds will have a coupon of between 1.3 percent and 1.9 percent to be decided next week, SoftBank said in a regulatory filing on Monday. The proceeds will be used to cover redemptions.
Subscriptions will run from April 15-25, with 11 underwriters including Nomura Securities, the brokerage subsidiary of Nomura Holdings, and Daiwa Securities.
SoftBank has 700 billion yen of bonds maturing in the current financial year. The tech conglomerate decided on its largest ever such float after determining there was strong demand from retail investors.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-softbank-group-financing/softbank-group-plans-4-5-billion-bond-targeting-retail-investors-idUKKCN1RE05R
(and 'Mrs. Watanbe' is going to buy these?)
Manufacturing rebound lifts Asian shares to seven-month highs
TOKYO (Reuters) - Asia shares extended their rally on Tuesday as positive Chinese and U.S factory activity surveys aided investor confidence, and the ebbing concerns over the global economy spurred selling of safe-haven U.S. bonds as yields rose from 15 month troughs.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.2 percent, hitting a seven-month high after rallying more than one percent in the previous session.
Australian shares gained half a percent and Japan’s Nikkei advanced 0.3 percent, extending its gains for a third session.
The Shanghai Composite Index climbed 0.1 percent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was flat.
Wall Street shares jumped on Monday, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average both rising more than one percent, with the Dow lifted by sharp gains in Caterpillar Inc and Boeing Co. [.N]
Investors cheered U.S. data overnight showing improvements in manufacturing activity last month and construction spending for February, which overshadowed an unexpected drop in retail sales.
The upbeat readings reinforced positive sentiment garnered from earlier data showing China’s manufacturing sector surprisingly returned to growth for the first time in four months in March.
The rare bright news for the global economy comes in the wake of persistent worries over cooling demand across the world, with the Sino-U.S. tariff war, slowing trade and subdued corporate profits prompting investors to dump risk assets over the past several months.
“The market is reacting to the improvement of sentiment in China. Many investors are buying in anticipation of a rise in shares,” said Norihiro Fujito, chief investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.
Fujito said he expected the market will need to catch up with consumer sentiment in the United States at some point as the below-par retail sales figures indicated it was not as good as thought.
The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield was last at 2.479 percent, not far off a more than one-week high of 2.508 percent brushed overnight.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/manufacturing-rebound-lifts-asian-shares-to-seven-month-highs-idUSKCN1RE03E?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews