Japan's PHC, formerly Panasonic Healthcare, announces 197.7b yen IPO

[TOKYO] Japanese medical device maker PHC Holdings, formerly Panasonic Healthcare, will list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Oct 14 in an initial public offering (IPO) worth up to 197.7 billion yen (S$2.41 billion).

In what would be Japan's biggest IPO this year, PHC will offer up to 53.4 million shares, including an overallotment in the event of exceptional demand, a filing with the Ministry of Finance showed on Tuesday.

At PHC's indicative price of 3,700 yen per share, the company will have a market value of 452 billion yen, Reuters calculations showed.

US private equity firm KKR & Co bought the former Panasonic Corp healthcare unit in a US$1.67 billion carve-out deal in 2014, when the Japanese electronics conglomerate overhauled its business.

KKR currently owns 45.77 per cent of PHC, Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co owns 20.17 per cent and Panasonic 10.79 per cent.

PHC, with a global workforce of over 9,700, reported revenue of US$2.8 billion in the year ended in March.

The company last year ramped up production of ultra-low temperature (ULT) freezers to meet an estimated 50 per cent surge in demand globally as health authorities prepared to handle storage of delicate mRNA vaccines for Covid-19.

REUTERS