{"text":[[{"start":9.25,"text":"The number of initial public offerings in Japan fell to a 15-year low in the first six months of the year, a situation that is unlikely to improve in the short term due to a lack of start-ups that can quickly come to market, analysts have said."}],[{"start":23.45,"text":"A record increase in Japanese stocks, with the Nikkei 225 up about a third this year, has not been enough to jump-start Tokyo’s moribund market for listings."}],[{"start":34.05,"text":"This month’s debut of ride-hailing app Go that raised ¥89bn ($550mn) only underlined the dearth of other companies willing or able to go public in the past six months."}],[{"start":46.199999999999996,"text":"There have been just 18 IPOs in Japan this year, according to data from Dealogic — the lowest number since 2011 and well below the annual average of 35. The amount of capital raised by IPOs was just $917mn, the lowest since 2022."}],[{"start":null,"text":"
"}],[{"start":66.25,"text":"Bankers, advisers and lawyers said that performance was unlikely to be reversed in the second half of the year. That was partly due to Japan lacking the kind of start-ups that could quickly take advantage of the surge in valuation for companies linked to AI, data centres and semiconductors. "}],[{"start":82.85,"text":"“Maybe towards the end of the year and into the next year we should start to hopefully see IPOs start to pick up,” said Shu Nagata, head of Japan global capital markets at Bank of America in Tokyo. “Given the Iran conflict this year and market volatility, people are waiting and wondering whether there is a good time to go.”"}],[{"start":102.14999999999999,"text":"Yusuke Minowa, co-head of Goldman Sachs’ Japan capital solutions group, said: “We would expect activity to build more meaningfully later this year and next year, with private equity-backed issuers likely to be an important driver alongside a gradual recovery in growth listings.”"}],[{"start":119.69999999999999,"text":"Japan’s two main sources of IPOs are start-ups going public and private equity groups looking to exit companies they bought during the buyout boom in recent years."}],[{"start":129.79999999999998,"text":"Both have come under pressure since Japan lacks a large number of start-ups in AI-related sectors. Private equity has usually done business with companies in sectors that generate positive cash flow to pay down debt from leveraged buyouts."}],[{"start":143.64999999999998,"text":"“Equity market conditions are constructive in certain areas, particularly around semiconductors and AI-related infrastructure,” said Minowa. “However, for companies outside those themes, investor selectivity remains high.” "}],[{"start":157.79999999999998,"text":"It was also difficult to pull off an IPO quickly in Japan, advisers said, as regulations required two years of audited revenues for established companies and one year for start-ups. "}],[{"start":168.49999999999997,"text":"That level of scrutiny was higher than in other major markets such as the US, bankers said, and was justified in part because of the far higher percentage of retail investors in Japanese listings."}],[{"start":179.49999999999997,"text":"The bankers who spoke to the FT all said they believed business would eventually pick up again and that Japan’s IPO market was becoming increasingly attractive to global investors. "}],[{"start":191.34999999999997,"text":"The Go listing — which appealed partly because it was in a highly regulated and domestic industry — was another positive signal as it involved 70 per cent uptake by international investors, a higher than average proportion in recent years."}],[{"start":204.94999999999996,"text":"“Ten years ago, we would very rarely see start-up companies like these coming out of Japan and attracting global investors in an IPO,” said Kenji Taneda, head of Skadden’s Tokyo office and its corporate and US law practices in Japan."}],[{"start":219.54999999999995,"text":"“We definitely have a bigger pipeline of global IPO deals than was the case six or seven years ago . . . but at least in terms of interest in people looking to global IPOs, it is actually fairly active.”"}],[{"start":230.84999999999997,"text":"The lull in Japanese IPOs comes as other regional markets have boomed, with Hong Kong’s stock exchange claiming the top spot globally for listings in the first quarter of this year."}],[{"start":241.64999999999998,"text":"However, bankers said there was little competition between regional markets due to factors such as language and the prestige that came with Japanese companies having a local listing."}],[{"start":258.7,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1782707456_6534.mp3"}