China's Alibaba was an IPO monster last year, but for 2015, Japan is preparing its own. Japan Post Holdings by all accounts could blow past the Alibaba listing to become the most massive offering of stock ever seen.
The company represents the finance-ministry-held giant that combines the national postal service with the country’s biggest savings bank and major insurer. Its financial arm alone had ¥205 trillion ($1.71 trillion) worth of assets under management as of December, roughly one-third the entire annual GDP of Japan, says MarketWatch.
It took more than a decade for the offering to be made, as there were controversies since the idea of privatization had been introduced. Besides bringing in the largest revenue for the country, Japan Post is also the biggest employer in the country.
Finally, with the government decided to shore up Japan’s debt-bedraggled finances, the stock appears ready to go to market sometime this autumn, with the ministry having set a goal of ¥4 trillion yen, or about $33 billion, for the divestment proceeds. Such an amount would eclipse Alibaba’s BABA $25 billion haul — to date the largest in history.
At the same time, much of the details have yet to come up. According to the
Nikkei Asian Review, the event may come as a trio of listings: Japan
Post Holdings, along with separate tickers for its subsidiaries Japan
Post Bank and Japan Post Insurance.
Some expect to see the issue as pulling in a somewhat more modest $10 billion-$20 billion.
