Sunday, September 14, 2008

CITI SETS SIGHTS ON RETAIL INVESTORS WITH RECORD Y315BN SAMURAI ISSUE

Citigroup will this month tap the Japanese market for the second time this year to raise funds with a Y315bn ($2.91bn) record samurai bond issue aimed at retail investors seeking higher yields.
The Japanese market has become increasingly important to financial institutions as a place to raise funds. Demand has been relatively resilient in the face of the credit crunch due to calmer local conditions and a search for higher yields, given domestic base interest rates of 0.5 per cent.
So far this year there have been 56 samurai issues – yen-denominated debt issued by foreign entities to Japanese investors – worth Y1,708.7bn, a 32 per cent increase from the same period last year, according to Thomson Reuters data. Citi raised Y186.5bn in samurai bonds in June.

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