JR Kyushu Shares Untraded in Tokyo Debut After $4 Billion IPO

(Bloomberg) -- Kyushu Railway Co. shares remained untraded in early Tokyo trading on their debut following a 416 billion yen ($4 billion) initial public offering this month.

Bids outnumbered offers three to one, according to data from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The government sold all 160 million shares held by Japan Railway Construction, Transport and Technology Agency for 2,600 yen apiece, or the top end of a marketed range, at the IPO. The shares will start trading in Fukuoka on Wednesday.

In the gray market, JR Kyushu shares jumped as much as 13 percent to 2,950 yen on Monday, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified citing company policy.

The IPO is the nation’s largest rail share sale in more than a decade and is part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to encourage citizens to invest some of their 1,700 trillion-yen household savings in the stock market.

--With assistance from Kiyotaka Matsuda To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Cooper in Tokyo at ccooper1@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anand Krishnamoorthy at anandk@bloomberg.net, Sam Nagarajan

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