SoftBank Group, a Japan-based investment conglomerate, plans to raise a record 1 trillion yen (US$6.3 billion) from retail investors in Japan in what would be the largest retail corporate bond sale by a Japanese company.

Pricing for the seven-year notes is expected on Sept. 4.

The company said the bonds would carry an indicative coupon of 4.3% to 4.9%.

This would be its third retail bond sale this year, after it raised 418 billion yen (US$2.63 billion) in April and 260 billion yen (US$1.63 billion) in June.

SoftBank has committed more than US$60 billion to OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, and said the fundraising would support those commitments.

It has also been accelerating data center investment to expand computing capacity amid demand from OpenAI and other hyperscalers.

The bond sale comes alongside other financing efforts, including a US$10 billion margin loan secured against SoftBank’s OpenAI stake.

SoftBank reported net income of 1.8 trillion yen (US$11.3 billion) for the quarter ended March 31. S&P Global Ratings revised its outlook on the company to stable from negative on July 16, while affirming its BB+ rating.

🔗 Source: Bloomberg

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