SoftBank Names Nomura to Lead $4.5 Billion Bond Sale

(Bloomberg) -- SoftBank Group Corp. appointed Nomura Holdings Inc. as the lead underwriter for its 500 billion yen ($4.5 billion) bond sale, which may be the country’s biggest ever, according to people familiar with the matter.

Nomura plans to sell about 150 billion yen of the notes, while Daiwa Securities Group Inc. will handle about 90 billion yen and SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. about 80 billion yen, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. The sale is aimed at individual investors and will help SoftBank repay a mountain of debt coming due over the next six months.

The sale would be Japan’s biggest ever yen offering if done in a single tranche. It will also be SoftBank’s second mammoth fundraising from public investors within six months, following the December initial public offering for its telecom unit that raised more than 2 trillion yen mainly from individual investors.

Representatives at SoftBank, Nomura, Daiwa and SMBC Nikko declined to comment on the details before the public announcement.

SoftBank is calling the notes Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks Bonds, named after the country’s reigning championship baseball team and part of the corporate group. The firm plans a related gift for anyone who purchases the securities.

The bonds will mature in April 2025, according to a filing last week. The bonds will be priced at a coupon in the range of 1.3 percent to 1.9 percent on April 12, it said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Takahiko Hyuga in Tokyo at thyuga@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Edwin Chan at echan273@bloomberg.net, Peter Elstrom

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.