Wal-Mart Stores Inc. priced the first samurai bonds from a U.S. borrower since Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. defaulted on its yen debt in September, roiling Japanese investors.
The world's biggest retailer is marketing ¥83.1 billion in five-year, 1.49 percent bonds priced to yield 0.55 percentage point more than the yen swap rate, and ¥16.9 billion in five-year floating-rate notes priced to yield 0.6 percentage point more than the six-month London interbank offered rate for yen, cosale manager Mizuho Securities Co. said in a faxed statement Wednesday.
"It's a terrific sale," said Masahiro Kami, a senior fund manager at Daiwa SB Investments Ltd. in Tokyo. "The samurai market overcame another hurdle in its recovery. The sale will certainly affect the future samurai market positively.
Wal-Mart is the first U.S. company to sell samurai bonds since July 2008, when it became the first retailer to sell the securities since Sears, Roebuck and Co. in 1979, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The market for samurai bonds, or yen-denominated notes sold in Japan by overseas borrowers, closed in the wake of Lehman's default, the data show.
BNP Paribas Securities Japan and Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co. are managing Wal-Mart's samurai sale with Mizuho.