, Columnist
SoftBank Is Treating Its Bondholders Like Dirt
It isn't wise to alienate your creditors when you have this much debt.
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SoftBank Group Corp. founder Masayoshi Son is on a mission, and he isn't going to let some irritating bond covenants stand in his way. His plan to get around them risks treating certain creditors more favorably than others, and that is a dangerous strategy for a company so reliant on leverage.
Son wants to IPO the company's core Japanese telecom business, but two bonds issued by the parent company in 2013 have terms requiring it to have an investment grade senior unsecured credit rating before it can sell certain assets -- including the telecom unit. Unfortunately for the billionaire's plans, the grade is currently junk, at Ba1 from Moody's Investors Service with a stable outlook and BB+ with a negative outlook from S&P Global Ratings.