Tokyo Metro’s IPO could drive momentum in the Japanese market as Chinese listings dry up

Tokyo Metro’s initial public offering could drive momentum in the Japanese market and attract more companies into the country, analysts said, as China continues to lose steam.

In Japan’s biggest IPO in six years, Tokyo Metro raised 348.6 billion yen ($2.3 billion) after pricing its shares at 1,200 yen apiece, according to the company’s regulatory filing on Tuesday.

Reuters had reported, citing two sources familiar with the matter, that the IPO was more than 15 times oversubscribed. The stock is expected to be listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Oct. 23.

“Everybody knows it, and it’s been priced relatively cheaply,” Mio Kato, founder of LightStream Research, told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Tuesday. “I think both the Tokyo government as well as the Ministry of Finance, obviously, won’t want the IPO to fail.”

“It’s quite a big banner IPO for the year, and it’s just something that everybody, you know, the entire public, is going to be focused on coming so close to the election,” Kato added. “We think they’re offering very, very good value.”

A recent report published by Dealogic, a financial markets platform, shows that in September, equity capital market issuance in Asia-Pacific was worth just $168 billion, 15% below the first nine months of 2023 and 27% down from the same period in 2022.

The decline in overall Asia-Pacific issuance coincided with a slowdown in China, according to the report. However, India and Japan made up for a lack of issuance in China, it added.

Kato said he thinks the positive trend will continue for Japan, suggesting the country will soon bounce back from years of subdued IPO activity.

“I saw some news about NASDAQ actually trying to attract more Japanese IPOs. Since, you know, the Chinese IPO market has been kind of quiet lately,” he said.

Hyundai India also started taking orders for its $3.3 billion IPO in Mumbai this week, in a deal set to become the country’s biggest listing.

Ringo Choi, EY’s Asia-Pacific IPO leader, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Tuesday that both Hyundai India and Tokyo Metro are in “very hot positions” and “with high liquidity.”

Choi predicted that those two IPOs will be bellwethers for their respective markets.

When asked if he thinks Tokyo Metro and Hyundai India’s listings will open the floodgates for more activity, he said, “I do.”

“I do think that after these two IPOs, and if the return of the IPOs [are] reasonably good, it will attract more companies to consider these two markets as the IPO destination,” Choi said.

— CNBC’s Dylan Butts contributed to this report.