NTT DoCoMo issues bonds

NEW YORK—In its fourth debt deal of the year NTT DoCoMo Inc., Tokyo, plans to pay off maturing short-term debt with a new issue of $825 million in of 10-year, yen-denominated bonds paying 1.49 percent interest.
Including this new deal, Japan’s largest telecommunications carrier has raised $4 billion in bonds, in addition to $7.8 billion in stock from a secondary offering it sold in February. At that time, DoCoMo estimated it would need nearly $15 billion to pay for its foreign investments in AT&T Wireless, KPN Mobile N.V. of the Netherlands, Hutchison 3G UK Holdings Ltd. and KG Telecommunications Co. of Taiwan.
“All of the other times we have used the money to fund foreign investments, but this time we shall use it to transfer money borrowed earlier because our current debts are maturing,” said Masato Fuji, a DoCoMo spokesman.
Moody’s Investors Service Inc. and Standard & Poor’s Corp. assigned the latest debt issue their second highest ratings of AA1 and AA, respectively.
“DoCoMo has a … market share of approximately 59 percent in the Japanese wireless market, backed by its brand image, wide geographic coverage, advanced network system, excellent R&D capability and extensive marketing and customer service network,” said Emiko Otsuki, Tokyo, and Robert Konefal, New York, both corporate credit analysts for Moody’s.