Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mightylakers who wrote (94785)	2/28/2001 2:42:28 AM
From: Ibexx	Respond to of 152472

02/28 01:24 NTT DoCoMo Names Nomura, Morgan Stanley for Bond Sale (Update3) By Rinako Kunisawa Tokyo, Feb. 28 (Bloomberg) -- NTT DoCoMo Inc., the world's second-largest mobile phone company by subscriber numbers, said it will sell as much as 200 billion yen ($1.7 billion) of bonds to repay debt after its recent overseas spending spree. The offer, one of the biggest debt sales in Japan to date, will be DoCoMo's first public bond sale to domestic investors. ``Marketing for the sale will start next week,'' Katsutaka Higa, head of DoCoMo's finance department, said. In the past two years, DoCoMo has committed to spending 1.8 trillion yen on shares in companies to gain footholds in wireless markets around the world. The company last week completed a 950.4 billion yen share sale to help repay short-term debt, leaving a shortfall of about 850 billion yen. The developer of i-mode, the world's most popular mobile Internet service, will use funds raised from the bond sale to repay debt, company spokeswoman Yuki Isono said. Analysts say DoCoMo may also make fresh acquisitions in Korea and China. DoCoMo has been talking with SK Telecom Co. for more than a year about taking a stake in Korea's largest mobile phone company. The company will be ``positioned for further overseas investments once a bond sale is completed,'' Kirk Boodry, a telecommunications analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, wrote in a recent note to clients. The Tokyo-based company also plans to spend as much as 1.2 trillion yen over the next three years on new networks to offer high-speed wireless access to the Internet. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. and Nomura Securities Co. will underwrite the offering, Higa said. The bonds will mature in five years and 10 years, a banker at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter said. Debt Goal DoCoMo has said it wants to keep its debt ratio -- calculated by dividing interest-bearing debt by the sum of that figure plus equity -- close to 30 percent. DoCoMo expects the ratio to be at 33.5 percent in the year through March 2001, up from 30 percent in the year-earlier period. The cell-phone company's parent, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., which has the same credit rating, sold 100 billion yen of 10-year bonds earlier this month. Those bonds are yielding about 21.5 basis points more than Japanese government bonds of similar maturity. DoCoMo is one of eight Japanese companies with a higher local- currency credit rating from Moody's Investors Service than Japan's government bonds. It has a ``Aa1'' rating from Moody's for its senior unsecured debt with a ``stable'' outlook. Japan's local- currency long-term debt is rated one-notch lower at ``Aa2.'' The company has a ``AA'' long-term foreign issuer rating from Standard & Poor's with a ``negative'' outlook. Its domestic currency debt is rated the same. Nomura Securities, which has arranged more domestic bond sales than any other investment this year, also managed NTT's 100 billion yen bond sale earlier this month. Morgan Stanley and Nomura Securities declined to comment on further details. ©2001 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Terms of Service, Privacy Policy and Trademarks.