Oliver Corporation, an Okazaki, Aichi-based maker of chairs and office furnishings, priced its Tokyo Stock Exchange initial public offering at ¥305 a share on September 8, the top of a ¥295-to-¥305 bookbuilding range. The filing that fixed the price is the company's third submission on this offering, following an original registration on August 13 and a first correction on August 31. None of the money raised goes to Oliver itself. Every share on offer belongs to existing shareholders who are cashing out.
The underwriting syndicate, led by Nomura Securities and Daiwa Securities, agreed to buy the stock from sellers at ¥287.90 a share and resell it to the public at ¥305, keeping the ¥17.10 difference as compensation instead of charging a separate fee. Nomura and Daiwa each take on 35,050,300 shares, with ten smaller securities firms splitting the remainder of a syndicate underwriting 74,100,800 shares in total.
The stock being sold comes from three existing shareholders: Integral No. 4 Investment Limited Partnership, selling 40,761,400 shares, and two Cayman Islands entities, Initiative Delta IV L.P. and Innovation Alpha IV L.P., selling 17,777,000 and 15,562,400 shares respectively. For the over-allotment, Nomura Securities will sell a further 11,115,000 shares that it borrows from the same three holders, with a green-shoe option to buy them back through October 14. This is a liquidity event for those shareholders, not a financing round for the company.
Of the 74,100,800 shares in the base offering, 49,402,600 are earmarked for Japanese investors and 24,698,200 for buyers in Europe and Asia, excluding the United States and Canada. Oliver's underwriters said institutional demand exceeded the shares on offer and clustered at the top of the price range, the kind of signal that typically precedes a high-end pricing decision.
| Tranche | Shares | Offering value |
|---|---|---|
| Domestic sale | 49,402,600 | ¥15.07bn |
| Overseas sale (Europe & Asia, ex-US/Canada) | 24,698,200 | ¥7.53bn |
| Over-allotment (Nomura-led) | 11,115,000 | ¥3.39bn |
Oliver's own numbers explain some of the appeal to buyers: net sales climbed from ¥22.12bn in the year to December 2022 to ¥35.00bn in the most recent period, while ordinary income swung from a ¥493mn loss to a ¥3.15bn profit over the same stretch. Trading in the shares begins September 16, with the application window running from September 9 to 14. The bookbuilding demand data describe interest at the moment of pricing; they say nothing about how the stock will trade once it starts changing hands.