Japanese chipmaker Kioxia Holdings Corp. is aiming to list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, possibly as soon as this year, to raise funds for ramping up production in the wake of a recovery in demand for memory chips, sources familiar with the matter said Tuesday.
Bain Capital, Kioxia's major shareholder, notified the chip firm's lenders of the initial public offering plan on Monday, according to the sources. The memory chipmaker planned to go public in 2020 but called it off due to a downturn in the semiconductor market.
The global memory chip market is expected to grow 44.8 percent in 2024, driven by data center demand, according to the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics, an industry organization.
The listing will likely help the company pursue its growth strategy, including a planned 450 billion yen ($2.9 billion) investment to mass produce state-of-the-art memory chips. The firm also receives a 150 billion yen subsidy from the Japanese government to strengthen the domestic semiconductor market.
Kioxia is seeking to merge with its U.S. peer Western Digital Corp., but they halted merger talks last fall after the chipmaker's other major shareholder, SK Hynix Inc. of South Korea, opposed the plan.
