: Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway raised 281.8 billion yen ($1.9 billion) in a yen-denominated bond offering, a move that analysts say sets the stage for the American investment company increases its exposure to Japanese assets.

It was the company’s largest Japanese currency bond sale in five years, according to a term sheet reviewed by Reuters on Thursday.

The yen, or samurai, bond issue signals Buffett’s growing association with Japanese capital markets after purchasing his stakes in the country’s five largest trading houses over the past four years.

Berkshire Hathaway said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that proceeds from the transaction would be used for general corporate purposes. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed in the filing.

The company first announced that it would purchase stakes in Japanese trading houses in 2020 with the intention of holding them for the long term and increasing its stake to 9.9 percent. Since then, it has increased its stake in Japan’s five largest trading companies to about 9 percent each, according to its February annual report.

It sold 263.3 billion yen of bonds in April.

“Berkshire’s yen bond sales this year are the largest in a year since the company began selling yen bonds, indicating its expectations that Japanese stocks will rise,” Takehiko Masuzawa said. , sales manager of Phillip Securities Japan.

“The market is looking at what type of stocks will be their next target. Investors believe that value stocks that pay higher dividends, such as banks and insurers, will be the most likely targets.”

Buffett’s optimism about Japan has helped attract other foreign investors and propel the benchmark Nikkei index to a record high this year. The index is up 17.7 percent so far in 2024.

As part of the latest transaction, Berkshire Hathaway issued bonds with maturities of 3, 5, 7, 10, 20, 28 and 30 years, according to the term sheet.

The 3-year tranche was the largest with 155.4 billion yen raised. The 5-year bond raised 58 billion yen.

Longer-term bonds were added during the transaction and a proposed 15-year tranche was abandoned, according to messages sent by the deal’s bookrunners.

The final prices for each of the tranches were set between the bottom and the middle of the revised price indications given to investors, according to the terms.

($1 = 149.1500 yen)