TOKYO, April 7 (Reuters) - Japanese technology

investment group SoftBank Group plans to raise 600

billion yen ($4.10 billion) by issuing bonds to retail

investors, it said in a filing on Monday.

It is SoftBank's largest ever bond issuance and the proceeds

will be used to redeem existing bonds and to cover a portion of

the outstanding payment on the acquisition of shares of chip

designer Arm from its Vision Fund investment vehicle in

August 2023, a SoftBank spokesperson said.

SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son is known to take on debt to

fund investments and last week SoftBank led a $40 billion

funding round in ChatGPT operator OpenAI, of which SoftBank

would contribute $30 billion.

The bonds are set to mature in May 2030 and will yield

between 3% and 3.6%, with the exact rate to be set on April 18.

The group has some 7 trillion yen ($47.83 billion) in

outstanding bonds, LSEG data shows. It aims to keep the total

value of its loans at a ratio of under 25% of the group's total

assets. At the end of December 2024, this ratio stood at 12.9%.

($1 = 146.3500 yen)