Kioxia files IPO registration statement; targeting December, sources say

By Miho Uranaka and Sam Nussey

TOKYO (Reuters) -Bain Capital-backed Kioxia filed a registration statement on Friday which will allow the Japanese chipmaker to sound out investors for an initial public offering.

Kioxia's filings indicate it aims to conduct an IPO some time from December through June 2025.

The chipmaker is targeting December, two people familiar with the matter said.

Bain scrapped plans for an IPO in October after investors pushed the U.S. buyout firm to almost halve the 1.5 trillion yen ($9.79 billion) valuation it was seeking, Reuters reported.

Kioxia is the first company to use new rules that allow firms to test investor appetite before seeking listing approval from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. 

The chipmaker expects to receive approval from the bourse in late November, the sources said, with the indicative price for the shares disclosed at that time.

The schedule is left flexible in the filings under the new rules.

While the Japanese stock market has been volatile in recent months, investors globally are reassessing the outlook for chip-sector firms as the U.S. transitions to a new government under Donald Trump, whose policies shook up global trade in his first term.

Kioxia, formerly Toshiba Memory, has been hammered by a downturn in the market for memory chips with the industry debating the durability of a recent recovery in prices.

A Bain-led consortium acquired Kioxia from scandal-hit Toshiba six years ago for 2 trillion yen.

The chipmaker pays Bain an annual business consulting fee of 1 billion yen which will cease with the listing, when Kioxia will owe the buyout firm an additional 3.5 billion yen.

Kioxia is readying capacity expansion on the back of the boom in chips for artificial intelligence applications.

It reported a 32% rise in operating profit to 166 billion yen in the July-September quarter compared to three months earlier.

Morgan Stanley, Nomura and BofA Securities are joint global coordinators.

($1 = 153.2200 yen)

(Reporting by Miho Uranaka and Sam Nussey; Editing by Christopher Cushing)