Japan Post to go public in September

Japan Post Holdings and its banking and insurance units plan to debut on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in September next year, one of the nation's biggest initial public offerings, a daily said on Tuesday.
The Japan Post group, now 100 percent controlled by the government, is expected to announce the IPO plan by the end of December, the Nikkei business daily said.
The group, which owns Japan Post Bank, Japan Post Insurance and postal service unit Japan Post, will submit a preliminary application to the TSE in March, the newspaper said.
No details on the figures were immediately available, but the debut will be a major IPO rivalling that of NTT Docomo in 1998, which topped seven trillion yen ($58 billion), the newspaper said.
Initially, some 10 percent of each unit's outstanding shares will be released to the market.
The postal group whose net assets are estimated at around 14 trillion yen is negotiating the details with the finance and the internal affairs ministries, it said.
The postal privatisation reform was initiated by former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, with related bills clearing parliament in October 2005.
But the plan was once stalled as his Liberal Democratic Party lost power to the Democratic Party of Japan in 2009.
After returning to power in 2012, the current LDP-led government is now moving ahead with the privatisation project again.
Immediate confirmation of the report was not available.