Three Indian firms evince interest in Tokyo listing

Close on the heels of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Japan, three Indian companies have evinced interest to list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). The development comes on the back of a meeting of delegates from the TSE and Indian businessmen in Mumbai and Delhi.

The initiative — to connect Indian companies with the Japanese capital market — was taken by investment banking advisor Total Solutions, which was part of Modi’s delegation to Japan.

Kapil Malhotra, Managing Director, Total Solutions, said the visiting delegation met Indian companies to understand their businesses. He said three companies have submitted their applications, and another three companies were expected to sign up soon.

Among the companies that have shown interest in tapping the Japanese capital market are a South-based e-commerce company, and a North-based biotechnology company with interests in Asian and African markets.

A real estate company with the largest land bank in northern India has also shown interest, he said, without revealing the names of the companies due to the confidentiality agreement.

Of the 3,419 entities listed on the exchange, 12 are currently non-Japanese companies, including eight from the US, and one each from China, Korea and Malaysia.

ICICI Bank is the only Indian entity to have raised $25 million (about ₹155 crore) in the pro-bond market section of the TSE.

It takes about one year for companies to list on the bourse, while a bond can be issued in one month.

Hidetoshi Nagata, Head of Global Listings, TSE, said the average trading volume on the exchange has exceeded $20 billion (about ₹1.24 lakh crore) and records a market capitalisation of $4,543 billion.

As of December last year, Nagata said market capitalisation on the BSE was $1,139 billion, while that of the NSE was $1,113 billion. He pointed out that in the last nine months of this year, TSE has witnessed 43 IPOs and is expected to exceed last year’s figure of 64.

The exchange has different platforms for large and medium capital companies and ‘Mothers’ (market of the high growth and emerging stocks).

The TSE attracts the largest share of foreign institutional investors.

The Government Pension Investment Fund of Japan, the largest institutional investor in the world, has assets under management of $1.3 trillion (about ₹80.6 lakh crore), an amount comparable to the GDP of South Korea ($1.1 trillion, 2012).

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