Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) has approved an ¥18.2bn ($172m) initial public offering for WingArc1st, a Japan-headquartered, corporate-backed enterprise software provider.
WingArc1st is set to list on the First Section of the TSE on March 16, and will issue 120 million shares, with some 1.6 million set aside for the greenshoe option. The company will be valued at roughly $440m in the offering.
Founded in 2004, WingArc1st provides cloud-based data analytics software that helps businesses understand their customers’ needs and develop new products and services.
Private equity firm Carlyle Group is WingArc1st’s largest shareholder, with a 34.8% stake, having bought its shares from financial services firm Orix for an undisclosed sum in 2016. The firm had attempted to float WingArc1st on two occasions in 2019 and 2020, with neither coming to fruition.
IW.DX Partners, a joint venture between diversified trading group Itochu and its Itochu Techno-Solutions unit, holds 21.8%, followed by system integrator Toshiba Digital Solutions (13.1%), business card platform Sansan (6.8%) and Monolith Limited Liability Partnership (4%).
Other WingArc1st shareholders include artificial intelligence technology developer Pksha Technology (3.3%) and its Pksha Technology Capital vehicle (1%), logistics services provider Suzuyo (1.5%) and electronic commerce software producer Data Applications (0.6%).
IT services firm SystemExe invested in WingArc1st in January 2021, following a similarly undisclosed amount from Pksha Technology and Toshiba Digital Solutions two months earlier.
The company had received undisclosed sums from Data Applications, Itochu, Sansan and business intelligence service Teikoku DataBank in late 2019, Itochu and Suzuyo having supplied an undisclosed amount for the company the year before.
