Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is planning to sell yen bonds in the global markets, fueling speculation that the billionaire is weighing more investments in Japan.
The US conglomerate mandated banks for a potential benchmark SEC-registered bond offering.
The deal may come in the near future, subject to market conditions.
Berkshire Hathaway would be the first major non-financial overseas debt issuer to kick off a yen deal after the Bank of Japan scrapped the world's last negative interest rate last month.
Spreads on yen-denominated bonds from both Japanese and overseas issuers have tightened to its lowest since September 2022 amid signs that BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda won't rush to hike interest rates again. The extra yield investors seek for corporate debt is about 52 basis points, down from 67 a year ago.
A total of 8,881 Japanese firms went bankrupt over the past financial year ending in March, up by 30.6 percent yearly and hitting a nine-year high, according to Teikoku Databank.
Japan's central bank will continue to have monetary easing. Ueda has kept his options open for a further paring back of monetary easing as he avoided sounding overtly dovish with the yen hovering near a 34-year low.
"We have to consider reducing the degree of monetary easing if the underlying price trend rises along with our outlook," Ueda said. "We will carefully consider this at every policy meeting as it depends on incoming data."
Ueda's remarks come as yen traders maintain a high guard against a potential currency intervention by Japan. If the US CPI data released today proves stronger than expected, the result could further weaken the yen and push it beyond the 152 mark against the dollar, a line seen by some investors as a potential intervention mark.
