US private equity group KKR is planning an initial public offering for a chip equipment maker on Tokyo’s exchange in the fourth quarter, in what would be the market’s biggest IPO since 2018.
KKR aims to float Hitachi Kokusai Electric at a level that values the company at ¥400bn ($2.7bn), according to two people familiar with the buyout group’s plans. The valuation is about 60 per cent more than what KKR paid for the company when it was bought from Hitachi in 2017 as part of the industrial conglomerate’s shedding of non-core businesses.
Since then, valuations of chip companies and their suppliers have taken off, with the technology’s strategic importance in the supply chain highlighted by US efforts to restrict Chinese access to advanced semiconductors.