Japan Post share prices surge on market debut

The triple IPO of Japan Post’s holding company and its banking and insurance arms has raised $12bn and share prices surged on their debut. In trading today (Wednesday, 4 November), shares in Japan Post Holdings closed up 20%, while shares in the bank and insurance divisions were up 15% and a soaring 56% respectively.

As previously reported by Post&Parcel, the government allocated about 80% of the shares to domestic investors (as part of its driving to encourage Japanese households to invest in the stock market), while the remaining 20% was sold to international institutional investors.

All told, the government sold around 10% of the three Japan Post companies to the public in what has been described as the largest privatisation of a state-owned firm since Nippon Telegraph and Telephone in 1987.

This was also the biggest IPO since China’s Alibaba started trading on the New York Stock Exchange in September of 2014.