Japan's PHC, formerly Panasonic Healthcare, announces $1.8 billion IPO

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japanese medical device maker PHC Holdings Corp, formerly Panasonic Healthcare, will list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Oct. 14 in an initial public offering (IPO) worth up to 197.7 billion yen ($1.8 billion).

In what would be Japan's biggest IPO this year, PHC will offer up to 53.4 million shares, including an overallotment in the event of exceptional demand, a filing with the Ministry of Finance showed on Tuesday.

At PHC's indicative price of 3,700 yen per share, the company will have a market value of 452 billion yen ($4.1 billion), Reuters calculations showed.

U.S. private equity firm KKR & Co bought the former Panasonic Corp healthcare unit in a $1.67 billion carve-out deal in 2014, when the Japanese electronics conglomerate overhauled its business.

KKR currently owns 45.77% of PHC, Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co Ltd owns 20.17% and Panasonic 10.79%.

PHC, with a global workforce of over 9,700, reported revenue of $2.8 billion in the year ended in March.

The company last year ramped up production of ultra-low temperature (ULT) freezers to meet an estimated 50% surge in demand globally as health authorities prepared to handle storage of delicate mRNA vaccines for COVID-19.

($1 = 110.3000 yen)

(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki and Rocky Swift; Editing by Susan Fenton and Christopher Cushing)