PayPay to Go Public on U.S. Nasdaq

Tokyo, Feb. 13 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. said Friday its smartphone payment service unit PayPay Corp. will go public on the U.S. Nasdaq stock market. PayPay filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission a statement explaining its initial public offering plan to investors. The company is expected to go public as early as March. Its market capitalization is projected to exceed 3 trillion yen. Aiming to expand its services abroad, primarily in the United States, PayPay also announced its plan to collaborate with major U.S. credit card company Visa Inc. on Thursday. Under the partnership, PayPay will lead the establishment of a new company to operate payment services in the United States that are expected to support both contactless credit card payments and quick response, or QR, code payments. SoftBank Corp., a SoftBank Group subsidiary offering telecommunications services in Japan, and LY Corp., the operator of internet portal Yahoo! Japan, hold a combined equity stake of 66 pct in PayPay, while an investment fund under SoftBank Group holds 34 pct. At the time of PayPay’s stock listing, the existing shareholders will sell off part of their holdings, releasing about 10 pct of the company’s outstanding shares in total. According to the statement submitted to the SEC, PayPay has not unveiled the IPO price or the target amount of funds to be raised. The company apparently plans to compile final details after gauging demand from institutional investors. Alongside its U.S. listing, PayPay also plans to offer shares in Japan and submitted a securities registration statement to the Kanto Local Finance Bureau on Friday. PayPay was established in 2018. As a pioneer in providing QR code payment services in Japan, the volume of payment transactions through the PayPay app reached 12 trillion yen in fiscal 2024. As of the end of last year, its registered users exceeded 72 million. The U.S. listing of a SoftBank Group affiliate will be the first since the 2023 listing on the Nasdaq market of major British chip designer Arm Holdings PLC. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]