Japan Display Inc., a liquid crystal display vendor put together from the LCD businesses of Hitachi, Sony and Toshiba when they came under pressure from Samsung, is set to stage an initial public offering of shares on March 19.
Japan Display plans to sell about 140 million shares at 900 yen (about $8.80) and this represents a partial exit for the government owned investment vehicle Innovation Corp. of Japan (INCJ), which helped form the company in 2012 when it bought a 70 percent stake in the company for about 200 billion yen (about $2 billion). Sony, Toshiba and Hitachi held a 10 percent stake each.
Although Japan Display was formed under pressure and with government support it has been a successful supplier of displays to Apple Inc. About 30 percent of its output goes to Apple.
The company is set to raise about $3.1 billion from the partial sale. INCJ will retain about 214 million shares, or about 35 percent of Japan Display, after the IPO.
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