Japan’s government plans to privatize Kyushu Railway Co through a share sale that might fetch about ¥500 billion (US$4.87 billion) in what would be the nation’s biggest initial public offering (IPO) this year, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.
The Japan Railway Construction, Transport and Technology Agency, which holds all the shares of the company, also known as JR Kyushu, plans to sell its entire stake, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private.
JR Kyushu expects to today receive approval for the sale, and the shares are to trade on both the Tokyo and Fukuoka stock exchanges, the people said.
The listing is planned for Oct. 25, one of them said.
JR Kyushu, which operates trains on Japan’s third-largest island, is benefiting from record overseas visitors to Japan, spurring travel, and demand for its hotels and restaurants.
Based in Fukuoka, about 890km southwest of Tokyo, JR Kyushu is to become the fourth government-owned railway company created from the breakup of Japan Railways in 1987 to be privatized.
The government is privatizing companies as it seeks to spur individuals to put more of the country’s pool of household savings in the stock market. It last year sold shares in Japan Post Holdings Co, Japan Post Bank Co and Japan Post Insurance Co in its biggest state asset sale since 1987.
The JR Kyushu IPO would likely be the world’s second-largest this year and the biggest in the rail industry since 1993, when East Japan Railway Co raised US$7.2 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The railway stock was split 500-1 last month, according to an official government document. After the split, the agency now holds 160 million shares of JR Kyushu.
The sale is set to top Line Corp, which raised about US$1.3 billion in July, to become Japan’s largest IPO this year.
JR Kyushu predicts net income of ¥38.2 billion in the year ending on March 31 next year, with sales forecast to increase 0.2 percent to ¥379 billion.
The train operator had a net loss of ¥433 billion last fiscal year, as it booked a one-time ¥479 billion cost for depreciation of railway assets.
The company, which also operates bullet trains, said it got about half of its sales from railways in the last fiscal year.
About one-quarter of revenue came from its construction business, while the rest came from its train station, real estate, retail and restaurant businesses and other operations, the firm said.
JR Kyushu has more than 9,000 employees and more than 30 group companies.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”