Demand for shares of messaging app Line soars

Tokyo: Shares of Japanese messaging-app operator Line have been soaring ahead of its initial public offering in New York and Tokyo and are now 25 times more oversubscribed, the media reported on Wednesday.

Interest among non-Japanese investors appears to be especially strong, apparently due to a reduced number of information technology related IPOs this year, Efe news reported.

In the case of foreign investors, oversubscription exceeded more than 25 times the volume of shares that were on offer, as opposed to 13 times in case of Japanese institutional investors and 18 in case of Japanese individuals.

After fixing the price of its stock on Monday at $31.6, Line expects to attract about $1.2 billion.

It is estimated that market capitalisation of the Tokyo-based company will exceed more than $6.7 billion after its premiere at the New York Stock Exchange on July 14 and Tokyo Stock Exchange on July 15.

The instant messaging application, that also offers free calls, was launched in June 2011 and boasts of around 218.4 million monthly active users.