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Japan Post Holdings Co plans to sell 1.3 trillion yen ($9.5 billion) of shares in its banking unit, the latest step in the postal group’s privatisation.
The former state-run mail and financial services giant is seeking to sell about 975 million shares in Japan Post Bank Co, a Ministry of Finance filing showed. The offer to domestic and international investors is at an indicative discount range of 2% to 4%, according to a term sheet. Japan Post Bank plans to buy back as much as 150 billion yen of shares and cancel them, a separate filing showed. The company had a market value of 4.3 trillion yen at the close in Tokyo.
Japan Post Holdings currently has an 89% stake in the postal bank, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The large holding poses a potential problem for the bank to keep its place in the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Prime section. Companies are required to have more than 35% of all stock issued as “tradable shares,†according to exchange rules issued last year.
As part of the privatisation of Japan Post, the parent company plans to cut its stake in the banking arm to 50% or less by the year ending March 2026. It already reduced its ownership of another financial unit, Japan Post Insurance Co, below that threshold in 2021.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co, Daiwa Securities Group Inc and Nomura Holdings Inc are joint global coordinators of the offering.