Japan's Ride On Express raises $23m in Tokyo IPO

The firm - which listed on the Mothers (market of the high-growth and emerging stocks) section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange - sold 1.19 million shares, including 250,000 new shares, at JPY2,000 apiece. The issue represents just below 26.6% of the company's outstanding shares post-IPO.

Prior to the IPO, Jafco held a 34% stake in the company through two separate vehicles under the Jafco V2 Series Fund, which reached a final close of around JPY95 billion ($950 million) in 2005.

Ride On Express, which rebranded from Restaurant Express earlier this year, was set up in 2001 and runs six food delivery chains in Japan, including Curry Carry Delivery Shop and Gin No Saru sushi delivery. The company also operates a non food-related website called Little Artist, which offers online framing services for children's artwork.

Ride On Express employs around 2,000 people and has JPY460 million in capital. It reported JPY16 billion in revenue for the last financial year and JPY227 million net profit, down from JPY230 million the previous year.

This the fourth company backed by JAFCO to list on the Mothers section in recent weeks, the others being life media platform ZIGExN, casual clothing retailer Anap and electronic content distributor Media Do, which raised JPY5.8 billion, JPY540 million and JPY1.2 billion, respectively.

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Consumer
• Venture
• Exits
• Japan
• Venture
• IPO
• Consumer
• JAFCO
• Exit