Japans Dai-ichi Life plans $11.7 billion IPO

Junko Fujita TOKYO Mon Feb 22, 2010 8:17am EST Related News Dai-ichi Life announces plans for 691 bln yen IPOMon, Feb 22 2010Mizuho likely to buy stake in Dai-ichi Life-NikkeiSun, Feb 21 2010Mega IPO of AIG"s AIA unit faces headwindsFri, Feb 19 2010UPDATE 1-Dai-ichi Life to kick off IPO this month-sourcesTue, Feb 9 2010CORRECTED - CORRECTED-Dai-ichi Life to kick off IPO this month-sourcesTue, Feb 9 2010 Stocks & &

TOKYO (Reuters) - Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance, Japan"s second-largest life insurer, said on Monday it would sell about 1.07 trillion yen ($11.7 billion) worth of shares in the country"s biggest initial public offering in more than a decade.

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Dai-ichi Life is looking to expand overseas to offset its shrinking life insurance business in Japan as the population falls.

"Because Dai-ichi does not have much potential for growth in Japan, it needs to become a public company to make it easier to raise money to support its expansion," said Wataru Kasatani, a financial analyst for MDAM Asset Management in Tokyo.

Dai-ichi Life, Japan"s second only to unlisted Nippon Life Insurance, plans to list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on April 1 after completing the process of demutualization, in which its stock is distributed to its more than 8 million policyholders.

The company, established in 1902, will not raise any funds for its operations in the global offering, with policyholders given the option of holding on to their stock or cashing out.

Dai-ichi said more than 7 million shares would be sold globally at a tentative price of 150,000 yen each. The final price will be set on March 19 after gauging investor demand.

The company, whose main building in Tokyo served as headquarters for the U.S. occupation forces after World War II, already has a presence in Thailand, Australia and India.

SEEN AS A TEST

Dai-ichi"s IPO is seen as a key test for investor demand for new issues. The size of Japan"s IPO market dwindled last year to its lowest since 1992 amid the sluggish outlook for the world"s second-largest economy.

Dai-ichi"s IPO also comes as other Asian insurers look to tap the resurgent equity market for funds.

For a graphic on Asia"s top IPOs slated for 2010, click on:

here

Korea Life Insurance Co Ltd, that country"s No. 2 life insurer, aims to raise up to $2 billion in March, in what could be the country"s biggest initial public offering in four years. AIA, the Asian unit of American International Group (AIG.N) is planning a $10 billion-plus IPO in Hong Kong next month.

At the indicative price, Dai-ichi would be Japan"s biggest IP0 since mobile phone company NTT DoCoMo"s (9437.T) 2.1 trillion yen offering in late 1998. Dai-ichi"s tentative price would give it a market value of 1.5 trillion yen, more than double the value of rival TD Holdings (8795.T).

"The estimated price of 150,000 yen seems to be relatively cheap. But will the share price keep rising from here? Maybe not," said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management.

"I think they are going to be the kind of shares that trade in a stable manner and attract those investors who are after dividends."

Dai-ichi"s embedded value, a measure of insurance companies" worth that includes the present value of future profits from long-term insurance contracts, was 2.5 trillion yen in September. That means Dai-ichi"s market value would be 60 percent of its embedded value.

That is about the same as TD Holdings, which had 1.1 trillion yen embedded value in September and a current market value of about 640 million yen.

Dai-ichi Life"s revenue from the insurance business rose 16 percent to 2.9 trillion yen for nine months through December from a year earlier. Its fundamental profit, equivalent of operating profit, rose 18 percent to 265 billion yen.

But the growth was led by Dai-ichi Frontier Life Insurance Co, a unit that sells variable annuities.

Dai-ichi Life said it would sell 691.4 billion yen worth of the shares in Japan and the rest overseas.

Of the total shares sold in Japan, Dai-ichi said Japanese companies, such as Mizuho Corporate Bank, Sompo Japan Insurance Inc and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ would buy 2.1 million shares, helping it establish a base of stable shareholders.

Nomura Holdings Inc, Mizuho Securities and Bank of America-Merrill Lynch will arrange the initial public offering, Dai-ichi said.

($1=91.60 Yen) (Additional reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka and Chikafumi Hodo; Editing by Lincoln Feast)

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Rates cut for low-deposit mortgages

The mortgage outlook is becoming a little brighter at last for homeowners who have little equity in their homes or first-time buyers with small deposits.

Mortgage brokers are reporting rate cuts even where a homebuyer or remortgage customer has "only" a ten or 15 per cent deposit.

Newcastle Building Society, for instance, has launched a two-year tracker mortgage and a two-year fixed-rate deal for borrowers who have only ten per cent deposit or equity.

Right decision: Remortgaging means that Nigel Hall, left, and Tom Emery, are paying less interest

The tracker has a starting pay rate of 4.6 per cent - it tracks at 4.1 percentage points above the Bank of England base rate - and the fixed rate is 5.95 per cent.

The move follows HSBC, which has launched a lifetime tracker at 4.49 points above the base rate, giving a pay rate of 4.99 per cent, also available for borrowers with ten per cent deposit or equity.

Leek and Yorkshire building societies have also announced competitive rates for borrowers with at least 15 per cent equity. Leek"s twoyear fix, for example, is at 4.79 per cent while Yorkshire has a fiveyear fix at 5.69 per cent.

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"The rate cuts for high loan-to-value mortgages are really encouraging," says Richard Morea, broker at London & Country Mortgages in Bath, Somerset.

"There is still a big differential between the rates for borrowers with 15 per cent equity and those with 40 per cent, for example, but any improvement to rates and choice of product is good news."

Six months ago, a borrower with only 15 per cent deposit could get a best-buy two-year tracker with a starting rate of 4.69 per cent. Today, the best equivalent rate is 4.19 per cent. Six months ago, the best two-year fixed rate at the same loan-to-value was 5.69 per cent. Now it is 4.79 per cent - a drop of 0.9 percentage points.

Though the best short-term tracker and fixed deals for borrowers with 40 per cent equity have also fallen during the same period, the rate cuts have not been as big.

Melanie Bien, director of independent mortgage broker Savills Private Finance in central London, welcomes the recent rate cuts but says people must act fast.

She says: "Lenders typically start the year aggressively with competitive rates and cut back on lending later, so now could be the time to bag a good deal if you know you want a fixed rate or tracker."

Millions of borrowers are paying their lender"s standard variable rate after coming off low fixed and discounted deals in the past year.

But some SVRs are on the rise. Skipton Building Society caused outrage last month by announcing it was lifting its rate from 3.5 per cent to 4.95 per cent. The troubled society had to rely on an "emergency clause" buried in mortgage contractsto impose the huge increase.

Accord (part of Yorkshire Building Society), Ecology, Hanley Economic, Norwich & Peterborough and Holmesdale building societies have all increased their SVR in recent weeks. Other lenders will probably follow, warns Michael White, managing director at broker Email Mortgages.

"While many SVRs are lower than the best fixed rates on offer, borrowers who are worried about rising rates and mortgage costs should think about trying to find a good deal soon," says White.

"With a variable loan, the borrower is at the whim of the lender who may decide to increase the rate even when the base rate stays put."

Tom Emery, 31, a human resources manager from Stockport, Cheshire, and his partner Nigel Hall, 31, a teacher, recently remortgaged from Skipton Building Society to Accord.

Nigel and Tom own 15,000 equity in their 100,000 three-bedroom terraced home. Though this limited their loan choices, Tom says the market has improved. "If we had a bit more equity the rates would have been more competitive," says Tom, "but when I remortgaged I wanted to release some equity to pay to my parents. They helped me on to the housing ladder five years ago."

Tom and Nigel have taken a two-year tracker loan at 4.29 percentage points above base rate, giving a starting pay rate of 4.79 per cent. Among the advantages of the deal are no upfront fees and both legal costs and valuation fees refunded.

"If we had stayed on Skipton"s SVR we"d be paying more interest now than on our tracker deal," adds Tom, "so I think we made the right decision."

Sports Direct since Blacks final by Takeover Panel

Marcus Leroux, Retail Correspondent & , : {}

Sports Direct has been released with a put up or close up statute by the Takeover Panel over the try to buy Blacks Leisure.

The company, that is 71 per cent owned by Mike Ashley, has been told that it contingency have a organisation suggest for the not as big opposition by 5pm on Apr 1 or travel away.

The row acted after it was approached by Blacks, that currently deserted as unconditionally unsound a takeover suggest from Sports Direct.

The outside dilettante retailer, that trades as Blacks and Millets, has been targeted by Sports Direct for about 3 years and this sunrise indicted the opposition of restraint a due fundraising that was a key piece of the turnaround plans.

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Blacks pronounced that Sports Directs demonstrative suggest was at 62p a share, usually a 3 per cent reward to the shutting cost prior to the approach, that would worth the association at 41 million.

Blacks pronounced this morning: "The house is of the perspective that, carrying shut off the due fundraising notwithstanding being offering full pre-emptive appearance in it, Sports Direct is right away attempting to send that intensity shareholder worth from shareholders to Sports Direct.

Blacks" rejecting of the proceed outlines the ultimate turn in a long-running scuffle with Sports Direct. It has complained formerly to the Financial Services Authority that Sports Direct done a takeover proceed but disclosing that it had lost carry out of a twenty-nine per cent interest in Blacks as a outcome of the Icelandic promissory note collapse.

Blacks intends to press forward with a fundraising that will be structured so that it requires a elementary infancy of shareholders and cannot be vetoed by Sports Direct.

Blacks strange plan to lift twenty-two million by a fixation and open suggest was derailed last month by Sports Direct.

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Argentina manoeuvre as Hillary Clinton calls for Falklands talks

Giles Whittell, Hannah Strange, Catherine Philp and Martin Fletcher in Stanley & , : {}

Argentina was celebrating a tactful manoeuvre yesterday in the try to force Britain to accept talks on the destiny of the Falkland Islands, after a two-hour assembly in Buenos Aires in in in between Hillary Clinton and President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

Responding to a ask from Mrs Kirchner for accessible involvement in in in between Britain and Argentina, Mrs Clinton, the US Secretary of State, pronounced she concluded that talks were a essential approach brazen and offering to inspire both countries to lay down.

Her involvement defied Britains longstanding on all sides that there should be no negotiations unless the islands 3,000 inhabitants asked for them. It was hailed in Buenos Aires as a critical tactful victory, but cursed in the Falklands.

Britain insisted there was no need for involvement as prolonged as the islanders longed for to sojourn British. We dont think thats necessary, a Downing Street orator said.

Times Archive, 1982: Fleet assembles for Falklands movement

The Government is convention a naval charge force in reply to Argentina"s physical condition of the Falkland Islands

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What began as a last-minute change to Mrs Clintons channel on her five-day brush by Latin America has snowballed in to a critical tactful situation that has emboldened Argentina and held the US mostly un- awares. It could force Britain to reassess the turn of general await for the efforts to rise a hydrocarbon industry in the Falklands basin.

When Mrs Clinton left Washington at the week end she was scheduled to outlay usually ten mins with Mrs Kirchner on the fringes of the coronation of the new Uruguayan President in Montevideo. Argentina was not on her itinerary. The Argentine care lobbied tough for some-more deferential diagnosis and was rewarded with one of the majority closely watched American visits since President Bush attended a limit in Buenos Aires in 2005.

The timing, days after Argentina cumulative unanimous subsidy from South American leaders for the direct for talks on the Falklands, meant that Mrs Clintons difference were firm to be complicated for any pointer of a change from Americas normal on all sides on the islands that has been to stay out of the evidence over supervision but suggest Britain critical logistical support.

Mrs Clintons assembly with the decorated but exposed Argentine personality finished among smiles and laughter. She gave no pointer of subsidy the British on all sides on negotiations, observant instead: We would similar to to see Argentina and the UK lay down and finalise the issues in in in between them in a pacific and prolific way. We wish really most to inspire both countries to lay down. We cannot have possibly one do so. We think it is the right approach to proceed, so we will be observant this publicly.

US officials pronounced secretly that British fears of being deserted by the US over the Falklands were extravagantly overblown, but any goal on the piece of the Administration of staying on the sidelines looked unequaled yesterday.

Hctor Timerman, the Argentine Ambassador to the US, pronounced he had never seen such estimable await from Washington for his countrys claim. Mrs Clinton had not usually offering to intercede but had additionally signalled that talks should be in line with existent UN resolutions, he insisted, referring to non-binding UN General Assembly resolutions from the 1970s that urge both sides to negotiate.

Ruperto Godoy, the central Argentine supervision orator on the islands, pronounced the new vigour from Mrs Clinton was really significant, really critical and would assistance Buenos Aires to force Britain to the negotiating table.

In the Falklands, greeting to the assembly ranged from fear to fury. Its vast after all the await we have since the United States, pronounced Hattie Kilmartin, a sheepfarmers wife. They are not seeking at the people who are essentially vital here and what they want, and the funny that they are even considering going opposite us.

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Tributes paid to purpose indication Keith Alexander Football

Ben Smith and Peter Lansley & , : {}

Keith Alexander, the Macclesfield Town physical education instructor and the initial black physical education instructor to work in the Football League, has died.

Alexander, 53, was in the cave for Macclesfield"s 1-0 better by Notts County last night, but collapsed and died before long after nearing home from the match.

The means of his genocide stays misleading but Alexander, who became the initial black physical education instructor to work in the English tip leagues when he took assign of Lincoln in 1993, had surgery on a brain aneurysm in 2003 and suffered a serve shock in Mar 2009.

The England group wore black armbands in the accessible opposite Egypt last night as a symbol of respect.

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Mike Rance, the Macclesfield chairman, pronounced the League Two bar were in shock. "We"re all positively devastated," he said. "I spoke to Keith last night at about 11.15pm after the diversion at Notts County and he was in good intoxicating beverage because, nonetheless we lost, we had since a group chasing graduation a good game.

"We were chatting about an FA conference after he had a row with a arbitrate at Bournemouth, that only shows how ardent he was about the game. It was maybe wise that the last review we had was about football. He went home after the diversion last night and collapsed."

Rance added: "Keith was the undiluted physical education instructor for a bar similar to ours. He was all useful about handling in League Two and the constraints involved. He was a superb man, a genuine lady and an comprehensive payoff to work with. He was strong, sensible, ordered apply oneself via the diversion and was singular in most ways."

A lower-division player with Grimsby Town and Stockport County, Alexander additionally managed Ilkeston Town, Northwich Victoria and Peterborough United. Upon returning to Lincoln in 2002, he led them to the play-offs in what is right away well well known as League Two an rare 4 times in succession.

Born in Nottingham, he won 3 general caps for St Lucia. Highly reputable inside of the game, Alexanders teams were well well known for their approach personification style.

Barry Fry, who allocated Alexander as physical education instructor of Peterborough, certified he had been endangered about his friend"s health. "I unequivocally can"t hold it," Fry said. "I"d been disturbed newly about his health but he positive me he was fine. He not long ago had a hitch of hiccups that he couldn"t get absolved of and he went in to sanatorium for that, but he wasn"t feeling ill when I spoke to him last, he was bubbly. He"d had a couple of days off but he couldn"t wait for to get behind on the precision pitch.

"You won"t find a some-more dedicated man at any club, he regularly gave 150 per cent. I feel so unhappy for his family."

Macclesfield are scheduled to fool around Hereford United at Edgar Street on Saturday but the compare could be postponed.

Rance has already oral to Hereford authority Graham Turner and explained: "Graham additionally knew Keith really well and the preference as to either Saturday"s diversion goes forward will be taken by Keith"s family shortly. I know what Keith would have wanted, but it will be his family"s decision.

Garth Crooks, envoy for Kick It Out, footballs equivalence and inclusion campaign, said:

In one approach or an additional we all live to serve, but we have lost one of the good trailblazers. He served the game, and the community, with eminence and but fuss.

Well miss him.