Since 2018, the assets of the former Toshiba Memory Corporation related to the production of flash memory have been owned by a consortium of investors led by Bain Capital, and the NAND manufacturer continues related activities under the guise of Kioxia. Now this Japanese company has applied for an IPO, which should take place in October of this year and value its business at $10.3 billion.
Image source: Kioxia
As Bloomberg clarifies, it is planned to directly raise no more than $500 million from this event, but this amount will be enough to recognize this IPO as the largest in Japan not only this year, but also since SoftBank Corporation went public in 2018. Based on the results of the IPO, Kioxia’s capitalization can be estimated at $10.3 billion, and the company considers the period to attract investor funds to be successful, since the demand for solid-state memory has begun to grow, largely due to the need for high-speed and high-capacity drives for artificial intelligence systems.
A consortium of investors, which includes not only Bain Capital but also rival SK hynix, currently controls 56% of Kioxia shares, but intends to reduce its stake after the offering. The remaining 41% is still controlled by the once parent corporation Toshiba, which itself recently went through a privatization procedure and delisting from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The shareholder also plans to reduce its stake in Kioxia following its IPO, Nikkei reported. By the way, in 2018, investors bought the assets of Toshiba Memory Corporation underlying Kioxia for $18 billion, so with the former’s capitalization at $10.3 billion, they are unlikely to be able to return their investment only by selling shares.