Astellas Pharma Inc. priced one of the biggest yen bond deals of the year Friday, raising funds to pay for an overseas acquisition from a primary market that’s seeing record issuance.
The Tokyo-based drugmaker, whose products range from pills for hot flashes to cancer treatment drug, sold ¥200 billion ($1.37 billion) of notes in two tranches. It will repay a bridge loan to fund its $5.9 billion purchase of Iveric Bio Inc., a developer of drugs to treat age-related blindness.
The debt deal adds to the heavy volume of bond sales by Japanese companies, who are trying to take advantage of a drop in yen spreads even as speculation grows that the central bank is moving toward ending its super-easy monetary policy. Japanese firms have sold ¥7 trillion of bonds in the fiscal year started April 1, the most on record for the period, Bloomberg-compiled data show.
Astellas, which sold bonds for the first time in November to diversify its funding sources, priced three-year notes at 0.32% and five-year debt at 0.519%, according to underwriter Mizuho Securities Co.
Yield premiums of Japanese corporate bonds are around 59 basis points, 7.9 basis points lower than at the beginning of the fiscal year in April, Bloomberg-compiled data show.
(Adds updated corporate bond sales data for this fiscal year and chart.)
