Jobs Media Recruit To Be Listed On Tokyo Bourse

TOKYO, JAPAN - OCT. 16: Media and human resources firm Recruit Holdings Co. traded on a solid note Thursday as it debuted on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, with its president pledging to promote overseas mergers and acquisitions for growth. The stock ended the day higher at 3,330 yen ($31) in what became this year's biggest initial public offering in Japan, valuing the company at around 1.9 trillion yen, which rivaled Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp. Recruit began trading in the morning at 3,170 yen, topping its IPO price of 3,100 yen. Its market capitalization based on the debut price, 1.8 trillion yen, was also the largest since 1998 when NTT Docomo Inc. went public and was valued at 8.8 trillion yen. The bullish IPO of Recruit came despite the weakness of the overall Tokyo market where the key Nikkei index closed at a 4.5-month low on an overnight plunge on Wall Street.