According to CNBC Line offered 22 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange, and 13 million shares on the Tokyo stock exchange making it the biggest float of a tech company in 2016.
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If Facebook and Twitter are any indication, though, the real test will come in the next few months as investors scrutinize its user and sales growth. Shares of the company closed the day at $41.55 per share, an increase of 26.52% from its initial offering price of $32.50.
Shares in the Asian hit messaging app Line, Thailand’s favourite smartphone app, surged 40% in opening trade in New York Thursday in a market hungry for the newest technology IPO.
Line competes with other mobile messaging service providers, such as WhatsApp and Messenger from Facebook (FB) andWeChat from Tencent Holdings (TCEHY). Now, it dominates the Japanese market, and wants to expand in Thailand, Indonesia and the region of Taiwan. Following the IPO, Naver now controls approxiately 83.3 percent of Line’s stocks.
For anyone that has used LINE, these emoji characters appear below words that are typed – allowing users to choose a visual emoji to match the word being type and swap the word for the picture (i.e. typing “smiley” could cause a ‘ ‘ face to appear that could replace the word with the icon when tapped). The company said in its prospectus that it plans to pursue further user growth in Asia.
Line Corporation is a subsidiary of South Korea-based Naver Corporation.
Line is putting up 22 million shares in NY, and 13 million shares on the Tokyo stock exchange.
After mobile messenger app Line Corp.’s high-profile stock market debut in the US and Japan, the company and its parent Naver face a hefty task – staying competitive in the global mobile messenger and Internet market dominated by USA and Chinese Internet giants, such as Facebook, Google and Tencent.
It is best known for a huge assortment of animated “stickers”, which some too-busy-to-text fans rely on to communicate – a kind of animated language.
The stickers are hugely popular in Japan, especially among teenagers, and Line has been able to make money off them.
The stock is trading on the New York Stock Exchange with the ticker “LN”.
“You can express yourself not only in words but also in images”.
Tokyo’s influential day traders will be watching Line’s open ahead of its debut in its home market on Friday, and could spark an early feeding frenzy for the shares.
Line priced its dual listing in NY and Tokyo at the top end of its range earlier this week due to strong demand.
“The IPO gives use the resources to expand our business”.
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Line’s messaging app was launched in the aftermath of Japan’s 2011 natural disaster and tsunami to overcome downed communications, growing unexpectedly to become the country’s dominant mobile messaging platform over the next few years.
