Japan Display Inc, a supplier of screens for Apple Inc devices, and its owners are seeking about ￥409.1 billion (US$4 billion) in the country’s biggest initial public offering (IPO) in 18 months.
Japan Display will sell 140 million new shares in the offering, while investors will sell 213.9 million existing shares, according to terms for the deal obtained by Bloomberg News.
The Tokyo-based company will set the price range on March 3 and a final price on March 10, the terms show.
A tentative price was set at ￥1,100 a share, according to a filing with Japan’s Ministry of Finance.
A US$4 billion deal would be the nation’s biggest initial public offering since Japan Airlines Co’s US$8.4 billion sale in September 2012, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
It offers a partial exit for state-backed Innovation Network Corp of Japan (INCJ), which spent ￥200 billion for a 70 percent stake in Japan Display when it was formed through a three-way merger in 2012.
Shares of Japan Display will start trading in Tokyo on March 19, according to the terms.
Nomura Holdings Inc, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc are joint global coordinators for the offering, the terms show.
Bank of America Corp, Deutsche Bank AG and UBS AG are also among the banks helping manage the sale.
Japan Display was created when Sony Corp, Toshiba Corp and Hitachi Ltd spun off their panel businesses to INCJ after struggling to compete in the television display market.
INCJ is selling 186 million Japan Display shares in the offering, while the other three Tokyo-based companies are each selling 9.3 million shares, according to filings to the Tokyo Stock Exchange yesterday.
Japanese stocks were the best performers among major Asian markets over the past year, encouraging investors such as Bain Capital LLC and Cerberus Capital Management LP to recoup funds through first-time share sales. Nomura, the country’s No. 1 equity underwriter last year, expects IPOs will almost double to ￥1 trillion this year.
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