Kokusai Electric is set to go public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Wednesday in Japan’s biggest initial public offering since 2018, marking a success for KKR’s buyout of the semiconductor-equipment company.
The American private equity firm acquired the business from Hitachi Kokusai Electric through a tender offer in 2018, an early experiment in whether foreign buyout shops could successfully acquire pieces of unwieldy Japanese conglomerates and improve their performance.
It’s overcome challenges including a weakening yen and geopolitical conflicts over chips and will debut Kokusai at an offering price of ¥1,840 per share. KKR will sell about 58.8 million shares, raising ¥108 billion ($721 million).