SoftBank Group Corp.’s bond risk has climbed to a three-year high as founder and chairman Masayoshi Son faces a perfect storm of troubles with its Chinese and US investments and a push by the Japanese government to cut phone rates that threatens earnings at home, Bloomberg reported. The cost to insure the mobile carrier’s notes against nonpayment jumped 84 basis points in September to 260. SoftBank is the riskiest company on the Markit iTraxx Japan credit-default swap index, which climbed 19 basis points in the period. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s comments about the nation’s mobile-phone rates being too high added to a plunge in SoftBank shares that wiped about $16 billion in market value last month.
