Softbank Corp.'s cost of refinancing debt from its purchase of Sprint Corp. will be less than half of what it paid seven years ago to acquire the Vodafone unit that launched its mobile phone operations.
Now Japan's third-largest mobile carrier, Softbank expects to pay less than a 2 percent all-in rate on a ¥2 trillion syndicated facility, Softbank's head of finance, Yoshimitsu Goto, said at an earnings announcement Tuesday.
The company paid an average of 5.14 percent for long-term debt in the fiscal year that ended in March 2011. The average rates for Asian borrowers of dollar loans are about 2.1 percent, while for U.S. borrowers it's 2.9 percent.