Investing
Exclusive-Kioxia sets IPO price range of 1,390-1,520 yen per share, sources say
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
By Miho Uranaka and Sam Nussey
TOKYO (Reuters) -Bain Capital-backed chipmaker Kioxia has set a tentative price range of 1,390 to 1,520 yen ($9.22 to $10.09) per share for its initial public offering, two people familiar with the matter said.
They spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of Kioxia’s regulatory filing expected on Monday.
The price range compares with an indicative price of 1,390 yen set in November and gives the Japanese maker of flash memory chips a market value of around 749 billion yen to 819 billion yen.
Kioxia and Bain declined to comment.
Bain scrapped plans for an IPO of Kioxia in October after investors pushed the buyout firm to almost halve the 1.5 trillion yen valuation it was seeking, Reuters has reported.
The buyout firm postponed a previous IPO plan for Kioxia four years ago.
Bain’s efforts to list the chipmaker are being closely watched as a test case for buyout firms in Japan, where more companies are selling non-core assets or going private.
Going public would offer Kioxia fundraising options in a capital intensive industry but increase scrutiny on the company’s financials.
A Bain-led consortium acquired the chipmaker from scandal-hit conglomerate Toshiba for 2 trillion yen in 2018.
Kioxia is due to debut on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Dec. 18.
($1 = 150.6800 yen)
(Reporting by Miho Uranaka and Sam NusseyEditing by Chang-Ran Kim and Stephen Coates)
An Initial Public Offering (IPO) is the process through which a private company offers shares to the public for the first time, allowing it to raise capital from public investors.
Bain Capital is a private investment firm that specializes in private equity, venture capital, credit, and public market investments.
Flash memory chips are a type of non-volatile storage technology that retains data even when power is turned off, commonly used in devices like smartphones and USB drives.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) is Japan's largest stock exchange, where shares of publicly traded companies are bought and sold.
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