By Takashi Umekawa
TOKYO (Reuters) – U.S. buyout firm Carlyle Group Inc is set to win approval for an initial public offering (IPO) of Japan’s WingArc1st Inc as early as Thursday, two people with knowledge of the matter said, its third attempt to list the software firm.
WingArc1st develops and sells business software, including cloud-based offerings. It is likely to list in Tokyo by mid-March with a market capitalisation of around 50 billion yen ($475 million), the people said, declining to be identified as the information is not yet public.
It was not clear how much of WingArc1st Carlyle aims to sell, nor the amount Carlyle aims to raise.
Carlyle and the Tokyo Stock Exchange declined to comment on the matter. A WingArc1st spokesman said the software developer is considering listing and declined to comment further.
Carlyle bought Tokyo-based WingArc1st from Japan’s Orix Corp for an undisclosed sum in 2016. It shelved IPO plans in 2019 due to market conditions and again last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
No company has managed to list in Tokyo after already pulling plans twice, the Tokyo bourse said.
Carlyle owned 47.3% of WingArc1st as of February last year. It has since sold stakes to trading house Itochu Corp and other investors, showed data compiled by Refinitiv.
Carlyle now looks likely to take advantage of the Japanese stock market’s surge to its highest levels in 30 years. A successful IPO would be Carlyle’s eighth in Japan.
($1 = 105.6000 yen)
(Reporting by Takashi Umekawa; Additional reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by David Dolan and Christopher Cushing)
