Line Corp is mulling a $2 billion-$3 billion initial public offering (IPO) that could take place before the summer, International Financing Review reported.
It is “likely” the listing will be done on both the Tokyo Stock Exchange and either NYSE or Nasdaq, the report said, adding that Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Nomura are advising on the deal.
Some sources suggested it may be pushed back into the second half of the year.
In August 2015, South Korea’s Naver, of which Line is a subsidiary, dropped plans for an IPO in Japan and overseas, wanting to wait until its earnings improved and the markets recovered.
CFO Hwang In-joon had said at the time that global markets were too volatile to give a timeframe for going public, but noted that documents for its IPO were under review by authorities in Japan and the US.
In Q4 2015, Line’s revenue was JPY32.6 billion ($286 million), a 26 per cent year-on-year increase. It had 215 million monthly active users, of which 144.7 million come from Line’s top four countries in terms of market share – Japan, Taiwan, Thailand and Indonesia.
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