Kioxia Holdings Corp. set its initial public offering price at 1,455 yen per share, positioning the former Toshiba memory unit for Japan’s largest market debut this year with a valuation of 784 billion yen ($5.3 billion).
The Tokyo-based company lifted its IPO price from an initial estimate of 1,390 yen after gauging investor demand. Trading is set to begin December 18 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Prime Market, surpassing Tokyo Metro’s October listing that valued the subway operator at 700 billion yen.
As part of the listing, Kioxia will issue 21.56 million new shares. Private equity firm Bain Capital plans to reduce its stake from 56% to 52%, scaling back its originally planned share sale by 12%. Toshiba Corp. will cut its holding to 32% from 41%.
SK Hynix Inc. could emerge as the third-largest shareholder with a potential 14% stake if it converts its bonds to shares after the listing. The South Korean chipmaker holds convertible bonds through a Bain Capital special purpose vehicle.
The world’s third-largest NAND flash memory manufacturer projects its revenue will decline up to 10.6% to between 430 billion and 480 billion yen in the current quarter, following record-high sales of 480.9 billion yen in the previous period.
