KKR Poised for Kokusai Payoff With Biggest Japan IPO Since 2018

Kokusai Electric Corp. is set to go public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Wednesday in Japan’s biggest initial public offering since 2018, marking a success for KKR & Co.’s buyout of the semiconductor-equipment company.

The American private equity firm acquired the business from Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc. through a tender offer in 2018, an early experiment in whether foreign buyout shops could successfully acquire pieces of unwieldy Japanese conglomerates and improve their performance.

It’s overcome challenges including a weakening yen and geopolitical conflicts over chips and will debut Kokusai at an offering price of ¥1,840 per share. KKR will ...