Society

NTTâ€™s record $9.6bn bond issue ignites investor frenzy

Dec 12 (Nikkei) - A unit of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone priced Japan's largest-ever bond sale of 1 trillion yen ($9.62 billion) on Friday, attracting more than double its target in orders.

NTT had originally been planning an issuance of about 500 billion yen in November, but ended up doubling the figure in response to widespread interest from investors. Demand still significantly outpaced supply, with investors placing more than 2.4 trillion yen worth of orders.

"We didn't get even half of what we hoped to buy," one investor said.

The bonds, offered by NTT Finance in four tranches, are meant to help NTT repay short-term loans for its 4.25 trillion yen acquisition of mobile unit NTT Docomo. They attracted over 1,000 buyers ranging from insurers to government institutions to asset managers from Japan and abroad.

The 10-year note was particularly popular, with roughly 550 investors placing 1.05 trillion yen worth of orders for the 400 billion yen issuance.

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