Kokusai Electric has strong debut in year's biggest Japan IPO

TOKYO, Oct 26 (NHK) - A Japanese maker of chip-manufacturing equipment had a strong debut on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, rising on its first day of trading. The listing of Kokusai Electric on the TSE's Prime market was the biggest initial public offering this year in Japan.

The company was valued at more than 540 billion yen, or about 3.6 billion dollars, at the end of Wednesday's session.

Kokusai Electric specializes in technologies for forming thin films on chip surfaces.

US investment fund KKR acquired a group company of Japanese electronics giant Hitachi in 2017. It formed Kokusai Electric by separating out the firm's semiconductor equipment business the following year.

TSE officials say 66 companies went public between January and September this year. That's 14 more than the same period last year.

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