Line Plans For Becoming First Ever Japanese Company Making Dual Debuts Almost At The Same Time

Line Corporation, a Japanese subsidiary of Korean internet search giant Naver has announced on June 10 going public through New York and Tokyo stock exchanges during next month. The move for IPO appears as a part of Tokyo based mobile messenger company’s efforts for expanding globally. Trading of Line shares will kick off in the Tokyo Stock Exchange on July 14^th while that in New York on 15^th, suggests a regulatory filing by the company.

The mobile messenger platform has started rolling on September, 2000 under the title Hangame Japan Corporation representing as a South Korean game company owned by Naver. It has been renamed and transformed to Line Corporation from NHN Japan Corporation on April, 2013. 

    

The Naver subsidiary is going to issue 35 million new shares with a price tag of ¥2,800 ($26.20) per share. It has introduced Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Nomura Securities as the lead advisers for the initial public offering (IPO), reports The KoreaHerald.

Line has been eyeing raising $900 million (£624 million) from the capital market and thus the company will attain a value tag of $5 billion. The listing is possibly going to be the largest IPO for this year in the technology sector.

Through the planned expansion, Line intends to compete with Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and China’s WeChat. The mobile messaging platform appears to be most popular in Japan, Thailand and Taiwan. Animated stickers and stamps shareable during chatting, free voice calls and music streaming are the most customer attracting features for Line, according to a report published in BBC.

The decision on IPO has been announced following two separate board meetings in Seoul and Tokyo on the afternoon of June 10. Lee Hae-jin, chairman of both Naver Corp. as well as Line, has sought support from the board members over the plan for dual IPO.

The board meetings have been held with positive signal from the Tokyo bourse regarding enlistment. The mobile messaging service company eyes to raise ¥600 billion from Tokyo market alone. If Line’s plan gets implemented accordingly, it will be first ever debut of a Japan based firm in two stock exchanges almost at the same time.

Now a day, Line has been witnessing immense competition from Facebook since the industry giant has been gaining popularity in Asia through its own messaging service. Line has the maximum active subscribers compared to Facebook and Twitter in Japan. However, the number of Line subscribers has been dropping in other parts of the world, reports The Seattle Times.

Growing competition in the services of mobile messaging gets reflected through the debut of the Asian giant in the capital markets. In a similar move, Kakao, another Line rival has gone into public in 2014 after amalgamation with a South Korean web portal service.

Line has also applied for enlistment with the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2014. But that move has been postponed due to uncertainty in stock market and slower global growth.