By David Dolan
TOKYO (Reuters) -Shares of Rakuten Bank Ltd surged by more than a third in their market debut on Friday, after the internet bank raised $625 million in Japan’s largest initial public offering (IPO) in more than four years.
Shares were fetching 1,914 yen in Tokyo after spending the first hour of the morning session untraded due to a glut of buy orders. The shares climbed as high as 1,937 yen, a 38% premium to the downsized IPO price of 1,400 yen.
Japan’s largest internet bank by number of accounts priced the IPO at the top of its downsized range this month, raising around 83.3 billion yen ($625 million), excluding a “greenshoe” option of additional shares.
It had originally indicated a range of up to 1,960 yen a share for the IPO but later cut that by almost 30%.
Rakuten amended its IPO prospectus after investors pushed for details on the risks from its exposure to money-losing parent Rakuten Group Inc, Reuters reported on Thursday citing two people with knowledge of the matter.
The IPO marks a much-needed cash boost for e-commerce firm Rakuten Group, which has seen four years of losses from the costly build-out and struggles of its mobile phone business.
(Reporting by David Dolan; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Christopher CushingCushing)
