Japan’s government has raised the maximum ¥1.44 trillion (US$11.9 billion) sought in the privatization of the nation’s postal service and its banking and insurance units.
Shares of Japan Post Holdings Co were priced at ¥1,400, the top end of a marketed range, a Japanese Ministry of Finance filing showed yesterday. Its two financial units were also offered at the highest price a week ago.
The three-pronged initial public offering (IPO) is the world’s largest since Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) went public in September 2014, as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe fulfills a plan first drawn up by his mentor and predecessor, former Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, 10 years ago. Almost 80 percent of the shares are being sold to individuals as part of Abe’s goal of getting households to invest more of their savings.
Photo: AFP
Japan Post Holdings had been offered at ¥1,100 to ¥1,400 a share. It will list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Nov. 4, along with Japan Post Bank Co and Japan Post Insurance Co.
The brokerages that worked on the IPO are set to receive about ¥24.5 billion in fees, according to Bloomberg calculations based on a finance ministry statement. Nomura Holdings Inc, Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co were global coordinators of the sale.
Investor orders for the shares in the three companies exceeded the number being offered after the first two days of book building, people with knowledge of the matter said earlier this month. Demand for the shares has been strong as Japan’s stock market rebounds from a slump stemming from China’s equity sell-off in August. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average has gained 3.5 percent since the sale plans were announced on Sept. 10.
About 11 percent of the three companies are expected to be sold in the IPO, which is Japan’s biggest since NTT DoCoMo Inc in 1998 and the country’s largest privatization since Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp in 1987.
Some of the proceeds are set to be used to rebuild areas in the northeast that were damaged by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Italy is also floating its postal service, raising about 3.1 billion euros (US$3.4 billion) in the IPO of Poste Italiane SpA after fixing the price at 6.75 euros a share last week.
Most of Japan Post’s profit comes from its two financial units, which the government plans to eventually divest entirely.
The holding company is shifting the focus of the postal service to logistics and package delivery as the volume of letters and postcards declines due to the advent of electronic communication and the shrinking population.
It bought Australian logistics provider Toll Holdings Ltd for A$6.5 billion (US$4.7 billion) this year.
About 20 percent of the offering was allocated to foreign institutions, and the rest to domestic investors, mostly individuals. The 60 brokerages that managed the IPO took the unusual step of screening commercials on national television during the book building period for the holding company last week.
The parent company’s pricing is the cheapest of the three entities, at 0.41 times the book value of its assets. That compares with 0.47 times for the banking unit and 0.67 times for the insurer.
Japan Post Bank has the most deposits in the country and Japan Post Insurance is the nation’s largest insurer by assets.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
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