Sony Raises $83 Million in Sale of Tracking Stock

Sony Corp. raised $83 million through the sale of a tracking stock, which allows investors to buy into the company’s Internet unit.

Sony, the first Japanese company to sell a tracking stock, priced shares for Sony Communication Network Corp. at $27.34, in the middle of its target range. Sony earlier said in an offer document it aims to sell the shares at $32.31 each.

“With that price, investors will feel it’s not too expensive,” said Hideaki Kurimoto, a portfolio manager at Meiji Dresdner Asset Management Co. “They won’t feel the stock wasn’t popular.”

The stock is similar to securities sold by U.S. companies, including AT&T; Corp., Sprint Corp. and Europe’s Alcatel.

The stock will track the performance of Sony Communication, an Internet unit that sells its service under the So-net brand. The stock doesn’t represent ownership of the company’s shares and accounts for 0.3% of the parent’s shares. The shares will start trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on June 20.

Sony, the second-largest manufacturer of consumer electronics, plans to expand its Internet unit.

The unit, known as SCN, posted a group net loss of $41.3 million on sales of $2.9 billion in the year ended March. About two-thirds of its sales came from So-net-related businesses, and 24% of the sales came from selling other products such as a robot called Aibo.

So-net is Japan’s sixth-largest Internet service provider after Fujitsu Ltd.’s Nifty, NEC Corp.’s Biglobe, NTT Communications Corp.’s OCN, KDDI Corp.’s Dion and Japan Telecom Co.’s ODN.