Japan eyes up to US$87b from Japan Post listing
Japan Post Holdings Co, which runs the country’s biggest savings institution, has drafted a plan to go public in 2015 and enable the government to raise up to 7 trillion yen (US$87 billion) to fund reconstruction from last year’s quake and nuclear disaster, the Nikkei newspaper said on Friday.
State-owned Japan Post, which also operates the postal service and oversees a large insurance arm, would become a listed holding company under the plan, with the government selling down a two-thirds stake in stages, the Nikkei added.
The plan is to be submitted to the minister in charge on Friday, the business daily added. If approved, it would be the biggest listing in Japan of a government-owned company since the 1997 sale of shares in Central Japan Railway Co.
Japan Post has net assets of roughly 11 trillion yen.
But the plan may not go smoothly, with banking sources saying that Japan’s mega-banks and insurance companies are likely to oppose the move, fearing that the government’s continued minority ownership of Japan Post would give the firm’s financial arms an unfair competitive advantage.
The plan would also face political uncertainty, given that Japanese voters are likely to change government at elections which are due by August 2013 but expected to be held sooner.
A successful share sale would also require restructuring of the postal services business, whose losses are currently covered by the two financial units, the Nikkei said. The Japan Post group employed about 230,000 people as of March this year, with the bulk of those in the postal services business, it added.
The listing plan currently does not envisage selling shares directly in Japan Post Bank and Japan Post Insurance Co, the group’s biggest profit earners, the Nikkei added.
A spokeswoman at Japan Post said she was unaware of a plan and was checking on the report. The Finance Ministry was not immediately able to comment.
Japan’s government has raised about 15 trillion yen from selling shares in Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp.
