SOFTBANK yesterday demanded that Moody's remove all of its bond ratings after the ratings agency downgraded the conglomerate's debt by two notches and said it was reviewing the tech investment giant for a further downgrade.

Softbank immediately hit back, accusing Moody's of having based its decision on "its biased and mistaken views" and "excessively pessimistic assumptions", and took the unusual step of asking Moody's to withdraw its ratings.

The corporation said the rating "will cause substantial misunderstanding among investors and result in significant confusion for issuers".

The downgrade may increase borrowing costs for Softbank, which has a total of $55bn (£46bn) net debt.

It comes two days after Softbank said it would raise as much as $41bn through asset sales to fund its biggest ever buyback, after investors sold shares due to concern over high leverage and souring bets on unproven startups via its $100bn Vision Fund.

"Softbank believes that Moody's ratings action is based on excessively pessimistic assumptions regarding the market environment and misunderstanding and speculation that Softbank will quickly liquidate assets without any thorough consideration and without making improvements to its financial condition," it said.

Softbank's shares have rallied 55 per cent since it announced the buyback, which will see the group retire almost half its shares — though its ability to sell parts of its portfolio amid the coronavirus outbreak is under scrutiny.

(c) 2020 City A.M., source Newspaper