* Meiji Yasuda to cut $330 mln of unhedged foreign bonds
* To reduce exposure to currency risks
* Bought $3.9 bln of hedged foreign bonds in H1
* Plans to invest in emerging Asian economies in H2
By Satomi Noguchi
TOKYO, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Japan's Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co said it plans to cut its unhedged foreign bond holdings by around $330 million in the second half of this financial year due to concerns about persisting currency risk.
Japan's top nine insurers held around $1.6 trillion in assets as of March 2009 -- about the size of Brazil's economy -- and investors closely watch their plans because their investments can affect financial markets.
Meiji Yasuda, Japan's third-largest life insurer by assets, said it would shed a net 30 billion yen in unhedged foreign bonds in the October-March second half, after cutting 240 billion yen of them in the first half.
"In order to reduce our exposure to currency risk, we plan to cut holdings of unhedged foreign bonds, and shift a portion of those funds to hedged foreign bonds," Meiji Yasuda Deputy President Yasuharu Takamatsu said at a news conference.
Earlier this month, the dollar fell near its January low of 87.10 yen -- which was the lowest since 1995 -- as investors dumped the greenback on the view that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates near zero for some time to help the economic recovery.
This month's slide came after the greenback had already lost as much as 13 percent against the yen in April-September. The dollar was trading at 90.90 yen on Friday.
Meiji Yasuda manages 23.9 trillion yen of assets on behalf of policy holders, of which 7 percent was invested in foreign bonds as of the end of September.
The insurer said half of its foreign bond holdings were unhedged. Of this unhedged amount, dollar-denominated debt accounted for about 50 percent and euro-denominated bonds made up 40 percent, with the rest in the pound and Australian dollar, the insurer said.
Meiji Yasuda expects the dollar to trade between 83 yen and 98 yen and the euro at 120-145 yen in the October-March period. In April, it had forecast 90-110 yen for the dollar and 115-150 yen for the euro for the full fiscal year.
HEDGED FOREIGN BONDS
Meiji Yasuda bought 350 billion yen ($3.9 billion) of hedged foreign bonds in the the April-September first half.
The company said low hedging costs had helped it to aggressively buy higher-yielding foreign bonds, and it would consider buying more depending on how they compare with the performance of yen-denominated bonds.
It plans to buy 250 billion yen of yen-denominated bonds such as Japanese government bonds, municipal and domestic corporate bonds for the second half, after buying 420 billion yen of them in the first half.
Meiji Yasuda also said it would boost its investment in emerging markets by 5 billion yen mostly in Asia.
In April-September, it had invested about 5 billion yen in emerging Asian countries such as China, India, and Indonesia through investment funds. (Reporting by Satomi Noguchi; Editing by Chris Gallagher)