Japan’s Line plans dual listing in Tokyo, New York

Instant mobilemessaging service operator Line on Friday announced its plan for simultaneous stock listings on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange in midJuly, according to Japanese media.

Both the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange are expected today to approve Line’s initial public offering (IPO), which will be the first simultaneous IPO of a Japanese company and one of the largest IPOs of the year, Japan’s financial daily Nikkei reported.

Line expects to raise about 100 billion yen ($932 million) in a sale that would value company’s market capitalization at around 600 billion yen ($5.6 billion), according to Nikkei.

In Japan, its largest market, Line provides an exclusive app for music and other services focused primarily on leisure, hotels or shopping in urban environments.

Line says it has more than 218 million monthly active users in 230 countries. The majority of its users are based in Asia, while it is not very dominant in Europe and America.

Line initially planned its IPO in 2014, but backed down after the company failed to agree on listing details with its mother company, South Korea’s Naver.

Naver, which owns 80 percent of the shares, is expected to remain Line’s major shareholder even after its simultaneous IPO.