Asia Times: Mothers market for start-ups opens on Tokyo bourse



	December 23, 1999	atimes.com

Japan

Mothers market for start-ups opens on Tokyo bourse

TOKYO - The Tokyo Stock Exchange's new Mothers Market for start-up firms has opened for business with the listing of two Internet-related companies. A dearth of sell orders left the issues untraded in the morning session despite a spate of buy orders.

Internet Research Institute Inc (TSE:4741) was founded in 1996 and designs information systems that use the Internet. Pretax profit stood at 63 million yen in the year through June this year on sales of 725 million yen.

The other debutant, Liquid Audio Japan Inc (TSE:4740), was established in July 1998 and markets Internet-based music transmission systems. Pretax loss totaled 284 million yen in the year through June on sales of 52 million yen.

Mothers, or the Market for High-Growth and Emerging Stocks, has applications from a further 20 companies.

The main listing criterion is the promise of a company's business area. While there are no set profit criteria, listed companies are required to disclose business results every quarter and an initial public offering must involve a minimum of 1,000 trading units of new shares.

The prime aim of the new market is to foster the development of start-up firms. ''We hope to see the participation of many companies that will lead the future growth of the Japanese economy,'' said Mitsuhide Yamaguchi, president of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

But trading could become volatile because many of the companies are recently formed and the numbers of shares are limited. ''I don't know the appropriate price levels for the two newly listed companies,'' said an analyst with Societe Generale Securities (North Pacific) Ltd. ''The new market could prove difficult to operate if share prices fluctuate wildly.''

(Asia Pulse/Nikkei)

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