Shinsei Bank said Monday it will make an initial public offering at 525 yen per share when it lists on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Feb. 19.

The IPO price is the upper limit of an earlier set tentative IPO price range of between 450 yen and 525 yen, and the market value of outstanding Shinsei Bank shares will be about 710 billion yen, about six times the initial investment by a consortium led by Ripplewood Holdings LLC.

Shinsei Bank will offer 476.3 million shares when it lists, about 35 percent of the 1,358 million outstanding common shares held by the consortium. Subscriptions will be accepted between Tuesday and Friday.

The IPO price means that if it sells the shares on offer, the consortium will earn about 240 billion yen after paying brokerage commissions.

Shinsei Bank will be the first Japanese bank to go public after being bought and turned around by foreign investors.

The bank was created in 2000 from the ashes of the failed Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan, which was nationalized in 1998 and sold to the consortium in March 2000 after more than a year under state control.

In light of the 7.8 trillion yen in public funds injected into the bank during the process, the size of the proceeds could stir controversy over the way it was turned around.

The use of huge amounts of public funds will likely be criticized as some 5 trillion yen might become uncollectible.

The possible loss to taxpayers includes the 3.6 trillion yen the government spent to cover LTCB's net liabilities and losses as well as losses under a special loss-coverage clause in the LCTB sales contract. The contract requires the government to buy back claims on loans after a sharp drop in their value.

Shinsei Bank's listing will absorb some 250 billion yen from the market, the largest since convenience store chain Lawson Inc. went public in July 2000 and took in 263.5 billion yen. Shinsei Bank has been promoting retail banking services based on advanced financial technology while reducing its reliance on loans to businesses in order to sharply cut back on bad loans.

After offering the 476.3 million shares to the public, the Ripplewood-led consortium will continue to hold the remaining outstanding shares.