Kioxia adopts new process for 2025 IPO

Today, Kioxia is expected to file papers for an IPO on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in H1 2025 using a new listing process which has not been used before, reports the Nikkei.

Kioxia decided not to go ahead with a planned listing in October because market conditions were deemed unfavourable.

Under the new IPO process, the company submits a registration statement to the Financial Services Agency before the stock exchange approves the listing which allows the company to engage with potential investors before the IPO is approved.

This process makes the valuation achieved at the IPO less susceptible  to market fluctuations.

The new listing method has been available since October 2023, but this is the first time it has been used

Kioxia now wants to achieve a valuation of $6.5 billion at its listing next year. Before the cancelled October IPO it was looking for a valuation of $10.3 billion.

In 2017, Foxconn offered $30 billion for Kioxia. In 2018, a consortium led by Bain paid $18 billion for 56% of  Kioxia. In August 2022, Western Digital (WD) offered $20 billion to buy Kioxia.

The Bain consortium owns 56% of Kioxia and Toshiba owns 41%. The two Japanese government bail-out funds INCJ and DBJ  control 16.7%  of  Kioxia’s voting rights.