SoftBank plans record US$6.3 billion retail bond sale in Japan

[TOKYO] SoftBank Group plans a record ¥1 trillion (US$6.3 billion) retail bond sale, the biggest by any issuer in Japan, as the conglomerate raises funds for its investment commitments to OpenAI.

The seven-year bonds are expected to be priced on Sept 4, with an indicative coupon range of 4.3 per cent to 4.9 per cent, according to a company filing. 

SoftBank’s move is the latest in a global rush to amass funds in the hyper-competitive race for global leadership in artificial intelligence. 

Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Microsoft and Amazon.com – the four largest players in the data centre race – have pledged nearly US$2.4 trillion in AI-related spending over the coming years. On Monday Alibaba Group Holding raised the equivalent of US$10 billion in Hong Kong’s biggest-ever secondary share sale to help fund its efforts to pour money into chips, data centres and large-language models. 

SoftBank has committed more than US$60 billion to invest in the ChatGPT developer and has been accelerating investments in data centres as it seeks to expand computing capacity. The spending comes as questions about how to monetise the technology persist alongside warnings about overcapacity, growing corporate debt and the circular nature of many AI fundraising deals. 

Spokespeople at SoftBank Group weren’t immediately available for comment. The company said in a press release on Monday that it expects the bonds to get an A rating from Japan Credit Rating Agency.

“The company is betting that retail investors will buy a product offering an attractive yield, and it appears confident it can tap demand at a time when there are few fixed-income products that can beat inflation,” said Yuuki Fukumoto, senior financial researcher at NLI Research Institute. 

“Banks are finding it difficult to take on the risk given weak deposit growth, the credit rating and the seven-year duration, leaving the deal more reliant on retail investors,” Fukumoto said.

The offering will be SoftBank’s third retail bond sale this year, after it raised ¥418 billion in April and ¥260 billion in June.

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The new retail bond is likely to price toward the upper end of the indicated coupon range, according to Sharon Chen, a credit analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. The company faces a shortfall exceeding US$20 billion even after this bond issue, signalling a high likelihood of offshore bond issuance in the near-term, she added.

S&P Global Ratings revised its outlook on SoftBank to stable from negative on July 16, saying key financial ratios had improved more than previously expected. It affirmed SoftBank’s long-term issuer credit rating at BB+, one notch below investment grade.

SoftBank has also considered a margin loan backed by its OpenAI stake, cutting its fundraising target to about US$6 billion from US$10 billion. BLOOMBERG