Conveyor-Belt Sushi Chain Selling Bonds Shows Japan Debt Boom

(Bloomberg) -- There’s a new kid on the block in Japan’s corporate bond market, an operator of a conveyor-belt sushi chain, and the fact it chose to sell notes for the first time underscores the boom in the nation’s debt market.

Sushiro Global Holdings Ltd., which runs more than 500 sushi restaurants in Japan, priced 5 billion yen ($45 million) each of five-year and 10-year securities on Friday. It’s likely the first public bond sale by a so-called kaiten sushi chain, according to Bloomberg-compiled data.

One of Japan’s biggest sushi chains, Sushiro is making its debut in a market that’s breaking records as companies rush to lock in cheap borrowing costs and fund acquisitions. Local firms have sold about 13.5 trillion yen of notes since April 2019, already an annual high with 2 1/2 months still remaining in Japan’s fiscal year, Bloomberg-compiled data show.

The rising global popularity of sushi is also behind the debt offering. Sushiro will use part of its proceeds for capital spending at its overseas subsidiaries in Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong, it said in a filing.

--With assistance from Rie Morita.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ken McCallum in Tokyo at kmccallum4@bloomberg.net;Ayai Tomisawa in Tokyo at atomisawa@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew Monahan at amonahan@bloomberg.net, Ken McCallum, Finbarr Flynn

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