Rakuten Group hired banks for a $500 million bond sale at a time when high-yield dollar note funding costs are near 17-year lows.
The e-commerce firm is considering the sale of hybrid perpetual notes that can be called after five years, according to a person familiar with the matter. Rakuten is turning to the dollar bond market for the third time this year after pricing a combined $3.8 billion of such debt in the first half, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Rakuten¡¯s planned dollar bond sale follows its bond offering in the currency in April, the data showed.
Rakuten, which is rated a sub-investment BB by S&P Global Ratings, is planning a note when high-yield debt funding costs are at near the lowest level since 2007, according to a Bloomberg U.S. high-yield corporate index. The Japanese issuer debuted its first offering in the dollar market in 2019 when it still had still had the lowest investment-grade score of BBB ¡ª from S&P.
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