Rakuten Bank shares face glut of buy orders in Tokyo debut after $625m IPO

Shares of Rakuten Bank Ltd were untraded with a glut of buy orders in their market debut on Friday, after the internet bank raised $625 million in Japan’s largest initial public offering (IPO) in more than four years.

Shares were flooded with buy orders at 1,470 yen, Tokyo Stock Exchange data showed, a 5% premium to the IPO price of 1,400.

Rakuten Bank priced its IPO at the top of its downsized range this month, raising around 83.3 billion yen ($625 million), excluding a “greenshoe” option of additional shares.

It had originally indicated a range of up to 1,960 yen a share for the IPO but later cut that by almost 30%.

Rakuten amended its IPO prospectus after investors pushed for details on the risks from its exposure to money-losing parent Rakuten Group Inc 4755.T, Reuters reported on Thursday citing two people with knowledge of the matter.

The IPO marks a much-needed cash boost for e-commerce firm Rakuten Group, which has seen four years of losses from the costly build-out and struggles of its mobile phone business.

Reuters

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