Bain-backed chipmaker Kioxia’s shares rise in market debut

SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Shares of Kioxia rose 3% in their market debut on Wednesday, valuing the Bain-backed chipmaker at 807 billion yen ($5.25 billion).

Kioxia, a major manufacturer of memory chips, raised 120 billion yen after pricing its IPO in the middle of the indicative range at 1,455 yen per share. On Wednesday, it rose as high as 1,504 yen before trading at 1,485.

Kioxia, formerly known as Toshiba (OTC:TOSYY) Memory, was bought for 2 trillion yen in 2018 by a Bain-led consortium from Toshiba after a long and contentious battle. Toshiba put the business up for sale after plunging into crisis due to cost overruns at its nuclear business.

The road to the IPO has been an arduous one for Kioxia, whose name is a combination of the Japanese word kioku meaning “memory” and the Greek word axia meaning “value.”

The deal by the Bain consortium to acquire Kioxia, seen as a prized asset at the time, was a landmark intervention by private equity in Japan.

Uncertainty has continued since the sale, with Bain postponing IPO plans two years later amid uncertainty in the global chip market stemming from U.S-China tensions.

An effort to merge Kioxia with partner Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC), which had initially objected to the sale to the consortium, stalled due to objections from the Japanese company’s investor SK Hynix.

Bain Capital scrapped plans for an IPO of Kioxia in October after investors pushed the buyout firm to almost halve the 1.5 trillion yen valuation it was seeking, Reuters has reported.

($1 = 153.6800 yen)