Shares of Appier Group Inc (沛星互動科技), which offers artificial intelligence (AI)-based software, yesterday rose above their listing price in the company’s trading debut on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, proceeding to raise ￥29.8 billion (US$271 million) in an initial public offering (IPO) priced at the top of its marketed range.
The Taiwanese company’s shares were priced at ￥1,600 apiece in the IPO and got a significant bounce at the open, rising as much as 37 percent in early trading before paring gains to close up 19 percent at ￥1,900.
Softbank Group Corp and ASEAN China Investment Fund III were among holders who offered shares, with Masayoshi Son’s firm holding about a 4.4 percent stake, company filings showed.
Photo: Billy H.C. Kwok, Bloomberg
While Tokyo has been attempting to attract more foreign companies amid a broader push to become a financial hub, such listings remain unusual.
Appier is the first firm from Taiwan to list in Tokyo since Trend Micro Inc’s (趨勢科技) debut in 1998, the Nikkei reported.
“Japanese investors have a high acceptance of the artificial intelligence theme and the market accounts for a large part of our revenue,” Appier cofounder and chief executive officer Yu Chih-han (游直翰) said in a news briefing, explaining why the firm chose Japan.
Appier’s debut comes amid a broader sell-off in technology shares as investors rotate out of loftily valued growth stocks into more economically sensitive sectors, such as banking.
Chinese tech names have especially slumped due to a combination of rising interest rates and increased regulatory scrutiny in the US and China.
The listing on the Mothers market follows the debut of Internet giant Baidu Inc (百度) in Hong Kong on Tuesday last week.
“Many software companies opt for the US market because software valuations tend to be higher there, but successful listings in other markets could begin to open up other opportunities for companies to consider,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Matthew Kanterman said.
Last week, Appier and shareholders sold 18.6 million shares, after marketing them at ￥1,400, ￥1,500 or ￥1,600 apiece.
Appier said that its AI-based software is used by customers, including Alphabet Inc, Toyota Motor Corp and Estee Lauder Co, to improve profitability.
The company said that it plans to use the proceeds of the share sale to support growth, including funding research and development.
The company had a net loss of ￥1.45 billion on sales of ￥8.97 billion last year.
The offering was led by SMBC Nikko Securities Inc, Bank of America Corp and Mizuho Securities Co.
STRONG INTEREST: Analysts have pointed to optimism in TSMC’s growth prospects in the artificial intelligence era as the cause of the rising number of shareholders The number of people holding shares of chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) hit a new high last week despite a decline in its stock price, the Taiwan Depository and Clearing Corp (TDCC, 台灣集保) said. The number of TSMC shareholders rose to 2.46 million as of Friday, up 75,536 from a week earlier, TDCC data showed. The stock price fell 1.34 percent during the same week to close at NT$1,840 (US$57.55). The decline in TSMC’s share price resulted from volatility in global tech stocks, driven by rising international crude oil prices as the war against Iran continues. Dealers said
PRICE HIKES: The war in the Middle East would not significantly disrupt supply in the short term, but semiconductor companies are facing price surges for materials Taiwan’s semiconductor companies are not facing imminent supply disruptions of essential chemicals or raw materials due to the war in the Middle East, but surges in material costs loom large, industry association SEMI Taiwan said yesterday. The association’s comments came amid growing concerns that supplies of helium and other key raw materials used in semiconductor production could become a choke point after Qatar shut down its liquefied natural gas (LNG) production and helium output earlier this month due to the conflict. Qatar is the second-largest LNG supplier in the world and accounts for about 33 percent of global helium output. Helium is
China is clamping down on fertilizer exports to protect its domestic market, industry sources said, putting an additional strain on global markets that were already grappling with shortages caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran. China is among the largest fertilizer exporters — shipping more than US$13 billion of it last year — and it has a history of controlling exports to keep prices low for farmers. Shipments through the war-blocked Strait of Hormuz account for about one-third of the sea-borne supply. This month, Beijing banned exports of nitrogen-potassium fertilizer blends and certain phosphate varieties, sources said. The ban, which has not
AMAZING ABUNDANCE: Elon Musk has announced plans for a new facility in Texas which would manufacture chips for Tesla and SpaceX to use in robotics and AI Elon Musk said his Terafab project — a grand plan to eventually manufacture his own chips for robotics, artificial intelligence (AI) and space data centers — would be built in Austin and jointly run by Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX). Musk, the chief executive officer of the two companies, said he would start off with an “advanced technology fab” in Austin that would have all of the equipment necessary to make chips of any kind. The project would call for one day supporting 1 terawatt (TW) of computing power per year, the amount Musk expects the companies to
RSS