Rakuten Issues Record 400 Billion Yen Corporate Bond

Rakuten Group priced 400 billion yen ($2.5 billion) of yen-denominated bonds on Friday, marking the largest yen bond sale in the company's history. The 5.5-year bonds carry a 4.37% coupon, with the vast majority of the offering—360 billion yen—sold to retail investors and 40 billion yen sold to institutional investors.

The company intends to use the proceeds from this issuance and other asset monetization efforts to manage substantial bond redemptions scheduled to begin in 2027. While Rakuten returned to a quarterly net profit in the April-June period for the first time in six years, its mobile business continues to operate at a loss.

The offering aligns with a broader trend in Japan where individual investors are moving funds from deposits to higher-yielding corporate assets to combat inflation. Japanese companies have sold approximately 3.2 trillion yen in retail bonds in 2026, exceeding the previous year's record by more than 15%.