Berkshire Hathaway raises $1.9 billion in yen-denominated bonds

Billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has raised about 281.8 billion yen ($1.9 billion) in yen-denominated bonds, in a move analysts say paves the way for the US investment firm to increase its exposure to Japanese assets.

According to CNBC, the deal is the company’s largest Japanese-denominated bond sale in five years.

The yen-denominated bonds, or samurai, indicate Buffett’s deepening involvement in Japanese capital markets after his moves to boost his stakes in Japanese companies over the past five years.

For its part, Berkshire Hathaway said in a disclosure to the US Securities and Exchange Commission that the proceeds from the bond deal will be used for general corporate purposes.

Buffett’s company first announced its intention to buy stakes in Japanese trading houses in 2020, with the intention of holding them for a long time and increasing ownership to about 9.5%.

Since the disclosure, Berkshire Hathaway has increased its stakes in Japan’s five largest publicly traded companies to about 9% each, according to an annual disclosure in February. In April, the company sold 263.3 billion yen in bonds.