Subject: Re: BRK borrowing Yen again
But seriously, what’s happening here? Berkshire did a similar bond issue 2 years ago, January 2022, to finance the Japanese trading house investments. Now we bought more Japanese bonds? Or is this just an update of the previous deal? It seems like the bonds mentioned today have the same terms as the ones sold in 2022. So I’m not sure this is anything new.

As for currency moves, I believe they would affect both the value of the bonds issued and the cash received for them, so that may be a wash.

Sounds confusing. These bonds are being sold, not bought. This is the "float" with natural built-in currency hedge to finance the purchase of the 5 Japanese stocks. When the currency falls, Berkshire recognizes a gain on the shrinking of the liability in USD terms. This would be somewhat offset by the currency loss on the JPY-denominated stocks but those companies are truly global and earn money in many currencies.

Berkshire has issued Yen bonds consistently for several years. 2022, 2023 and 2024. Some of the issuances are just rolling over maturing debt but the market demand has been very strong (Berkshire is the largest foreign corporate issuer in the Japanese bond market) so Berkshire has upsized several bond issues to meet the demand.

The Yen has been super weak. My wife just informed me 30 seconds ago that we are heading to Japan for a vacation in the fall. Can't wait!