“Japan Insurer’s Plan to Sell Foreign Debt Flashes Market Warning”
April 18, 2023
“A Japanese insurer with $65 billion of assets plans to offload all its currency-hedged foreign debt holdings, foreshadowing what may become a renewed wave of selling by some of the biggest investors in global bond markets…
Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance Co. is among the first of Japan’s life insurers to lay out investment strategies for the fiscal year. With combined assets of $2.9 trillion, the industry has long been a major force in overseas markets but has pulled back in the past year as hedging costs erase the yield premium on foreign debt, and expectations rise for an end to the Bank of Japan’s ultra-loose monetary policy.
The privately-owned firm, with ¥8.8 trillion ($65 billion) of assets, will cut its holdings of offshore debt by ¥300 billion in the fiscal year started April 1, said Yoshiyuki Suzuki, executive officer and head of the investment planning department. The reduction will eliminate all its remaining ¥240 billion of hedged foreign notes…”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/japan-insurer-plan-sell-foreign-030021552.html