Shares in SG Holdings — operator of Japan's second-largest parcel delivery company by volume, Sagawa Express — could rise in value by as much as 27 percent within a year after its debut this month, as investors bet on solid earnings helped by logistics services at home and abroad.
With the indicative price range set at ¥1,540 to ¥1,620, book-building is under way for what could be Japan's biggest initial public offering this year when SG lists its shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Dec. 13. The IPO comes as optimism over global growth and Japanese corporate earnings helped boost the Topix index to levels unseen in a quarter century early last month.
The shares of the firm's biggest rival, Yamato Holdings Co., which gets its revenue mostly from domestic operations, have declined 3.9 percent this year, and Yamato booked an operating loss in the April-September half on higher labor costs needed to secure workers.