Japan condo builder taps bond market after 20 years

[TOKYO] Haseko Corp, a Tokyo-based condominium builder, is returning to the bond market for the first time since defaulting in 1999 on about US$3.6 billion in debt after the Japanese real estate bubble burst.

Haseko, which paid dividends for the first time in six years in the year ended March 31, last month registered to sell as much as 30 billion yen (S$350 million) of notes and plans an offering of five-year debt, according to documents from Japan's Finance Ministry and Mizuho Securities Co, one of the arrangers.

This would be Haseko's first sale since it raised 40 billion yen in 1994, Bloomberg-compiled data show.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic revival policies spurred a property market boom that pushed the average cost of an apartment in the greater Tokyo area to a 22-year high in August at…