Shares in Japan's Dai-ichi Life Insurance rose 14% on their debut today at the Tokyo Stock Exchange in the world's biggest initial public offering for two years.
The country's oldest and second-biggest insurer traded at 160,000 yen ($1,712) against an IPO price of 140,000 yen, giving it a market capitalisation of more than $17 billion.
The Tokyo-based company, previously a mutual corporation owned by its eight million customers, decided to list to secure funds for investment in domestic and overseas operations.
Facing a declining home market due to Japan's ageing and shrinking population, Dai-Ichi is looking to expand into emerging Asian markets such as India, Thailand and Vietnam.
About seven million shares were placed on the market while three million securities were distributed to existing policyholders.
Dai-ichi Life, set up in 1902, is Japan's oldest mutual life insurer, and the second largest after Nippon Life Insurance.
The flotation was the world's largest since US financial services group Visa's $19.7 billion offering in March 2008. It is also Japan's biggest since Nippon Telephone and Telegraph released shares in mobile operator NTT DoCoMo in 1998, which came to 2.1 trillion yen ($22.45 billion).
