Japanese chipmaker Kioxia’s initial public offering (IPO) has reportedly raised $800 million as the company sets its price at 1,455 yen ($9.7) per share.

Toshiba Memory (now Kioxia) is one of the leading producers in the flash memory sector, having invented the world’s first NAND flash memory in 1987.

Reuters reported that filings from the Bain Capital-backed memory chip manufacturer confirmed shares were priced right at the mid-expected price range, with Kioxia having a set tentative price range of 1,390 to 1,520 yen per share. The offering size was 120 billion yen including an overallotment option.

The IPO, the third largest in Japan this year according to Bloomberg, values the company at 784 billion yen ($5.2 billion). Kioxia is due to list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on 18 December.

The transaction reflects a growing trend in large listings in Japan across several sectors, with a particular focus on technology, transportation and data centres. Other notable IPOs in 2024 include Tokyo Metro, which raised around $2.23 billion; and X-ray testing tools specialist Rigaku, which went public with a value of around $126 million.

Reuters added that filings confirmed Bain Capital and Toshiba will sell shares as part of the IPO, with Kioxia separately issuing new shares.

Bain Capital abandoned plans for Kioxia's IPO in October after investors pushed the buyout firm to nearly halve the 1.5 trillion-yen (about $10 billion) valuation it was seeking, Reuters reported.

Bain also delayed a previous IPO plan for Kioxia four years ago.

In 2018, a Bain-led consortium acquired the chipmaker, which was a wholly owned subsidiary of Toshiba, in a 2 trillion yen an ($18 billion) carve-out, with Toshiba remaining a significant investor and remaining on the board of the company.

In a statement at the time, Bain Capital said the transaction was “highly complex” due to the many international stakeholders involved, including Apple, Dell and Western Digital, which the company already had partnerships with.

After the transaction, Bain said it would commit to keeping Kioxia in Japan and developing the company’s semiconductor technology there, while continuing to fund development efforts to meet growing and increasingly sophisticated global demand.

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