Japan Post Insurance plans to sell holdings of lower-yielding government bonds and replace them with higher-yielding debt on expectations for further interest-rate hikes, according to its chief executive officer.
The life insurer expects the Bank of Japan to raise interest rates again as soon as April. It¡¯s one of the nation¡¯s biggest insurers and held ?50.35 trillion ($320 billion) in securities at the end of last year. As Japanese bond yields jumped in the final quarter of last year, the firm¡¯s valuation losses on domestic notes widened about 30% in the three months to ?4.39 trillion.
¡°It¡¯s important to make adjustments in light of rising interest rates, to legitimately benefit from the rate hikes,¡± said CEO and President Kunio Tanigaki in an interview on Friday. Market interest rates ¡°will continue to rise in the near future,¡± he said.
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