Messaging app Line to list in Tokyo, New York

The IPO would be this year’s biggest tech offering globally, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, providing a rare bright spot for the moribund market for listings.

The company believes that the integration on its LINE platform of content and services offers users a convenient way to connect and have fun with their family and friends, explore and share their interests and satisfy their daily needs with greater ease, which Line believes enriches the user experience and ultimately contributes to higher user loyalty. The company stated that it would sell 35 million shares for an indicative price of 2,800 yen each, with 13 million new shares in Japan and 22 million shares overseas.

Something new is headed to both the Tokyo and NY stock exchanges next month. Morgan Stanley, Nomura Securities, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan are the joint bookrunners on the deal. Competitors like Messenger and WhatsApp, both owned by Facebook, cumulatively have billions of users. Debuting in 2011, it pioneered the business model of selling stickers and other digital knickknacks that people buy and share during chat sessions on phones. At the midpoint of the proposed range, it would command a fully diluted market value of $6.1 billion.

Facebook Inc.’s Messenger and WhatsApp have 900 million and 1 billion monthly active users, respectively.

The company will offer 35 million new and existing shares. At that time the company was valued at more than $10 billion.

Despite its push into Asian markets, the company still generates most of its sales at home.

Line, which is owned by South Korean Internet provider Naver Corp., said it expected to list its shares on July 14 in NY and July 15 in Tokyo.

It has since mushroomed into Japan’s most popular messaging app and spread across Asia and in some Spanish-speaking countries.

Line has already confirmed it has submitted listing documents to Japanese and USA market regulators.

User baseThe company also stated that the Monthly Active User (MAU) count for Line stood at 218.4 million, as of March 31, 2016, increasing by 7% over the same quarter in the previous year. It plans to sell nearly two-thirds of its offering in the USA, an unusually large allocation for a Japanese company.