April 19, 2024

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[THE INESTOR] Japanese duty-free shop operator Japan Tourism Corp. is resuming the stalled process for its initial public offering on the nation’s secondary bourse KOSDAQ, The Bell reported on May 25.

The report said the bourse operator Korea Exchange is expected to review the application no later than July. 

This is the first IPO by a Japanese company in almost five years in Korea. The last one was SBI Axes, a Japan-based online payment solution provider that went public in December 2012.

JTC had originally planned to go public early this year but the plans were halted after its auditor Deloitte Anjin was slapped with a 12-month business suspension earlier this year for its role in the accounting fraud of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering.

The firm has recently replaced the auditor with Samjong KPMG to resume the IPO process.

Fukuoka-based JTC is wholly owned by Koo Chul-mo, a Korean businessman, and operates more than 20 duty-free shops in Japan. The company reported 700 billion won (US$628 million) revenue in 2015.

By Park Ga-young (gypark@heraldcorp.com)