Softbank plans to raise $12.3 billion by securitising its Vodafone K.K. mobile phone business. The company will raise the money in order to refinance the loan it took in April 2006 for the acquisition of Vodafone K.K. from the Vodafone Group. The planned securitisation is expected to enable Softbank to borrow funds at lower interest rates as the bonds backed by profits from the mobile phone business would be deemed more creditworthy than the company’s conventional fund raising tools.
