Japan’s NTT weighs up to $19 billion bond offering for Docomo acquisition

Japan’s Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT) is considering bond offerings of up to $19 billion in Japan and overseas to refinance loans for the $40 billion acquisition of its wireless carrier business, the chief executive said.

The telecoms firm has recently completed Japan’s largest-ever tender offer for the 34% of NTT Docomo Inc stock that it did not own.

It funded the acquisition through bridge loans totalling 4.3 trillion yen ($41.2 billion) from Japan’s biggest three banks and others, and has said it would refinance part of the loans with long-term bonds.

“It is ideal to borrow up to 2 trillion yen ($19.2 billion),” NTT Chief Executive Jun Sawada told Reuters in an interview.

Sawada added that bond issuance of 700 billion yen has already been decided, and that the future offerings would include foreign currency debt. Reuters