Japan Display, Investors Seek $3.8 Billion in Initial Offer

Japan Display Inc. (6740), a supplier of screens for Apple Inc. devices, and its owners are seeking 389.3 billion yen ($3.8 billion) in an initial public offering. Japan Display will sell 140 million new shares at 900 to 1,100 yen apiece in the offering, according to terms for the deal obtained by Bloomberg News today. Investors including Sony Corp. are offering 213.9 million existing shares at the same price range, the terms show. The IPO offers a partial exit for state-backed Innovation Network Corp. of Japan, which bought a 70 percent stake in the company for 200 billion yen in 2012. Suntory Beverage & Food Ltd., the maker of Orangina soda, completed a $3.8 billion first-time share sale in June, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. “Japan Display’s share of the small- and medium-sized panel market is high and there are few players,” said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Asset Management Co. in Tokyo. “Demand for Japan Display products will grow along with that of high-end smartphones.” 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 Holdings Inc., the country’s No. 1 equity underwriter in 2013, expects IPOs will almost double to 1 trillion yen this year.

Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg

The Japan Display Inc. plant stands in Mobara, Chiba Prefecture, Japan.

INCJ Fund

Shares of Japan Display will start trading in Tokyo on March 19, according to the terms. Nomura, 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 banks helping manage the sale. Japan Display was created when Sony (6758), Toshiba Corp. (6502) and Hitachi Ltd. (6501) spun off their panel businesses to INCJ after struggling to compete in the television display market. INCJ, as the government-backed fund is known, was founded in July 2009 to invest in technology that would make Japan’s industries more globally competitive. It has invested about 700 billion yen in 57 projects as it focuses on energy, electronics, information technology and biotechnology, it said in a Feb. 12 statement. The fund has 280 billion yen of funds from the government and companies, and has the capacity to invest as much as 2 trillion yen backed by government guarantees, its website shows. Source :   http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-03/japan-display-investors-seek-3-8-billion-from-initial-offering.html