West Nippon Expressway Company (NEXCO West) is issuing ¥90bn in five-year bonds at a 2.350% annual coupon, with funds due August 27, 2026, and repayment set for August 27, 2031.
The bond, the 114th in NEXCO West's series, carries general collateral and a joint debt-assumption clause: Japan's Expressway Holding and Debt Repayment Agency will take over the underlying obligation once the highway assets it finances are formally transferred to the agency, as required under the road-improvement special measures law.
Net proceeds of about ¥89.83bn, after roughly ¥169.3mn in issuance costs, will go toward highway construction, four-laning, repair and disaster-recovery work during the fiscal year running to March 2027, including the Shin-Meishin Expressway and other unfinished sections of the network. NEXCO West filed the sale under its own Social Finance Framework, aligned with the 2021 Social Bond Principles and backed by a second-party opinion from Rating and Investment Information (R&I).
Nomura Securities is underwriting ¥24bn of the issue, with SMBC Nikko Securities, Daiwa Securities and Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities each taking ¥22bn; Mizuho Bank is acting as bond administrator.
| Underwriter | Amount (¥bn) |
|---|---|
| Nomura Securities | 24 |
| SMBC Nikko Securities | 22 |
| Daiwa Securities | 22 |
| Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities | 22 |
R&I rated the bonds AA+, Moody's A1 and JCR AAA, all as of August 21, 2026. The sale is the third supplement this year under NEXCO West's ¥1.5tn shelf-registration program, following ¥25bn priced in February and ¥100bn in May. It was filed with the Kinki Local Finance Bureau as a shelf registration supplement, the document type EDINET assigns to incremental bond sales under an already-effective shelf program.