Japanese chip-equipment maker Kokusai Electric Corp.’s initial public offering was priced at the top of an offered range, with shareholder KKR & Co. set to raise ¥108 billion ($723 million) in the nation’s largest listing in nearly five years.
(Bloomberg) — Japanese chip-equipment maker Kokusai Electric Corp.’s initial public offering was priced at the top of an offered range, with shareholder KKR & Co. set to raise ¥108 billion ($723 million) in the nation’s largest listing in nearly five years.
Shares were priced at ¥1,840 each, according to a statement Monday. KKR offered about 58.8 million shares at an interval that started at ¥1,830 after lowering the band earlier this month from an initial guidance announced in September. Kokusai Electric was spun out of Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc. after KKR bought the mobile phone and wireless equipment manufacturer in a tender offer in 2018. The shares are expected to begin trading on Oct. 25.
The listing is Japan’s largest since SoftBank Corp.’s ¥2.4 trillion IPO in December 2018, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The country’s market for first-time share sales has rebounded from a slump, with IPO proceeds in Tokyo this year more than doubling from the same period in 2022, as a world-beating stock fuels equity sales.
Kokusai’s IPO comes as policymakers see semiconductors as key to national security, with equipment used to process silicon wafers critical for artificial intelligence and supercomputers. Prior to the pricing, some analysts tracking the sale cited ongoing geopolitical tensions in the tech industry and the company’s exposure to China, alongside a slump in revenue in the latest quarter as negative.
Chip-related stocks fell in Asia on Monday on a report the US plans to tighten curbs on China’s access to advanced semiconductors and chipmaking gear.
Kokusai Electric sells equipment to top global semiconductor manufacturers and counts Samsung Electronics Co. and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. among its top customers.
–With assistance from Fion Li.
(Updates throughout with final share price)
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