A Japanese insurer with assets worth ¥8.8 trillion ($65 billion) intends 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 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 erased the yield premium on foreign debt, and expectations rose for an end to the Bank of Japan’s ultraloose monetary policy.
The privately-owned firm, which has assets worth ¥8.8 trillion, will cut its holdings of offshore debt by ¥300 billion in the fiscal year that began 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.