Rakuten Securities, a major Japanese foreign exchange broker, is preparing to go public after the board of its holding company, Rakuten Group, agreed to the decision in a meeting held on Monday.
Announced on Tuesday, the move is believed to provide the brokerage division more autonomous perspective and allow its management to consider various growth and financing strategies. As a public company, it can even decide on its own financing.
Established in 1999, the growth of Rakuten Securities has accelerated at a massive pace in recent years. Its consolidated annual revenue for 2021 came in at 89.5 billion yen, which is almost 24 percent higher than the previous year and almost 60 percent up from 2019.
Moreover, the ordinary income of the company jumped to 16.4 billion yen last year, which is up from 15.2 billion yen in 2020 and 10.2 billion yen in 2019.
“Expansion of the Rakuten ecosystem is important for the further sustainable growth of the Rakuten Group,” the official announcement stated, adding: “when preparing for the listing of Rakuten Securities shares, the Company will continue to develop the Rakuten Group, especially the FinTech business, even after the listing, as Rakuten Securities is an important consolidated subsidiary of the Company.”
Consideration of Restructuring
In addition, the group is considering its organizational and capital structure for its “creditworthiness and financial soundness.” Its primary aim is to maximize growth and corporate value.
Despite the board’s approval, the fate of the Rakuten Securities public listing will depend on the result of the examination in the preparatory process.
“There is a possibility we may even conclude that the Rakuten Group may need to be reorganized or Rakuten Securities may not become listed,” the announcement added. “Therefore, the scheduled listing date has not yet been decided at this time, but we will disclose it as necessary based on the progress.”
