Japanese semiconductor-equipment company Kokusai Electric Corp. is expected to start trading in Tokyo on Wednesday after the largest initial public offering in the country since 2018.
American private equity firm KKR & Co., which acquired the business from Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc. in 2018, sold about 58.8 million shares in the company to raise ¥108 billion ($721 million). Shares were sold at ¥1,840 each, the top of a marketed range, in the biggest IPO hosted in Tokyo since SoftBank Corp.’s ¥2.4 trillion listing in December 2018.
The offering comes as activity in the country’s domestic market for new share sales picks up. IPO proceeds this year are about three times higher than the same period in 2022, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Companies that listed in Tokyo after raising between $500 million and $1 billion over the past five years rose by an average 15% in their first day of trade, compared with 33% across Asia Pacific.
Kokusai Electric’s debut takes place amid geopolitical tension over chips, with the US government and allies such as Japan tightening controls over the export of chip technology to China, the biggest market in the world.
Read more: KKR Poised for Kokusai Payoff With Biggest Japan IPO Since 2018
