Japan's Rakuten Group scraps plan to list Rakuten Securities

By Anton Bridge

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan's Rakuten Group has decided not to seek a listing for Rakuten Securities on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, it said on Thursday, adding it would instead deepen collaboration with major shareholder Mizuho Securities and other firms within the Mizuho Group.

The struggling e-commerce giant had said in November that it had temporarily withdrawn its application to have the securities unit go public, but that it planned to reapply at an appropriate time.

In 2023 Mizuho said it would invest 87 billion yen ($560 million) in Rakuten Securities, lifting the group's stake to 49% from just under 20%. It agreed to acquire 15% of Rakuten's credit card unit for 165 billion yen ($1.07 billion) last November.

Rakuten has conducted a series of fundraising measures in recent years - including asset sales, the listing of subsidiaries and raising equity - to pay off debt it accumulated to fund its mobile network, which launched in 2020.

At its third-quarter earnings last November, Rakuten reported operating profit of 538 million yen ($3.48 million), its first quarter in the black since 2020, as losses at its mobile unit shrunk.

The group has 400 billion yen worth of bonds to redeem by the end of 2025, LSEG data shows.

($1 = 154.4900 yen)

(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim and Anton Bridge; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

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