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IFR Samurai Loans Roundtable 2019

Welcome to the IFR/LPC Samurai Loans Roundtable. The event, held in Tokyo on August 27, drew strong interest from market participants with around 140 people attending. It brought together the three Japanese mega banks, regional banks in the country and foreign borrowers in a discussion covering the trends and outlook for Samurai and Ninja loans.

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IFR Samurai Loans 2019: Participants

Takeshi Endo Bank of Yokohama Takeshi Endo is deputy general manager of the global investment group of the financial market department in Bank of Yokohama where he has worked in various crossborder corporate, export credit agency, asset and structured financings. He joined the bank in 2006 and was involved in domestic structured financings before resuming in the bank’s cross-border financings business in 2014. He started his career with Tokyo Century Leasing followed by Credit Agricole’s Tokyo Branch, where he was involved in several global...

IFR Samurai Loans Roundtable 2019: Part 1

Prakash Chakravarti, Asia-Pacific bureau chief, LPC: A very warm welcome to all of you to the IFR/LPC Samurai Loans Roundtable. My colleague Wakako Sato, who has been covering the Japanese syndicated loan markets for many years, will kick off the discussion. Wakako Sato, LPC: The first question is to Jonathan from Vitol, which last tapped the Samurai loan market in August 2018 through a ¥60.8bn three-year facility. What is the attraction for foreign borrowers to tap Japanese liquidity and what are your expectations from Japanese investors as...

IFR Samurai Loans Roundtable 2019: Part 2

Wakako Sato, LPC: Endo-san, from an investor’s perspective, what are your expectations from foreign borrowers? What are the attractive aspects of the Samurai and Ninja loan markets? Takeshi Endo, deputy general manager, financial market department, Bank of Yokohama: From a Japanese regional bank’s point of view, there are a few attractive aspects, but I would like to point out three factors. The first point is that Samurai or Ninja loans provide Japanese regional banks with opportunities to lend and establish a relationship with foreign...

IFR Samurai Loans Roundtable 2019: Part 3

Prakash Chakravarti, LPC: Jonathan, when you consider the pros and cons of Samurai loans versus Samurai bonds, what is it that swings it in favour of Samurai loans? Jonathan Tan, Vitol: We see three main advantages in raising funds from the Samurai loan market. The first one is for unrated borrowers, which can tap the Samurai loan market, but for whom access to the Samurai bond market is restricted. Second is the relationship angle that we talked about earlier. We engage with the lenders and investors here to share with them information,...