(Businessweek) 
Panama hired Daiwa Securities Capital Markets Co. and Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co. to sell yen-denominated bonds in Japan, according to a person familiar with the transaction.
Panama Finance Minister Alberto Vallarino will be meeting with bond investors next week, said the person, who declined to be identified because terms aren’t set.
The bond sale will be the country’s first overseas since the nation obtained investment grade status. Moody’s Investors Service raised Panama’s credit rating to Baa3, the lowest investment grade in June, following similar moves by Fitch Ratings in March and Standard & Poor’s in May.
Investors demand 155 basis points, or 1.55 percentage points, more than U.S. Treasuries to hold Panamanian bonds, compared with 174 basis points for similarly rated securities from Brazil.
Panama plans to sell at least $500 million worth of yen- denominated bonds in Japan early next year, Vallarino said in an interview in New York Sept. 23. The bonds will pay a lower rate than Panama’s dollar bonds, even after including currency swap costs, he said.
–With assistance from Fabiola Moura in New York. Editor: Glenn J. Kalinoski