Judo master poised to pull off 416b yen IPO for once 'hopeless' railway

Tokyo

WHEN Kyushu Railway Co was formed almost thirty years ago, it was "hopeless" to think the company might one day go public, chairman Koji Karaike says.

Now the company, which loses money on its railway lines and generates profit from real estate, is on the verge of completing a 416 billion-yen (S$5.5 billion) IPO in what will be the world's third-biggest listing this year. The shares are set to start trading in Tokyo on Tuesday.

Mr Karaike, a 63-year-old judo black belt and published author, has spent almost three decades helping turn JR Kyushu into a profitable, diversified enterprise, which gets more than half its revenue from operations other than trains.

"No one, including ourselves, thought we'd ever be able to list our shares" when the company was formed from the breakup of Japan's nationalised railway behemoth in 1987, Mr Karaike said in an Oct 11 interview at its Fukuoka headquarters. "Our losses were the equivalent …