Ubiquitous Shares Untraded on Debut in Tokyo's Neo

Ubiquitous Corp., a Japanese software supplier to game maker Nintendo Co., was untraded on its first day on Tokyo's Neo market as buy orders exceed available shares by 9,746 to one.

Bids climbed to 300,000 yen compared with the initial offering price of 100,000 yen. Today was also the debut of Jasdaq's Neo market.

Neo, Japan's seventh market for start-ups, is the first to accept companies with no earnings. Listings are based on operating plans and earnings projections.

Ubiquitous forecasts operating profit, or sales minus the cost of goods sold and administrative expenses, of 1 billion yen ($9 million) by the fiscal year ending March 2010, about double the 470 million yen expected for the fiscal year ending next March, according to documents it filed with the exchange.

The Tokyo-based software company expects its shares to trade at 30.9 times earnings for the current year, and forecasts 13.9 times earnings by March 2010.

Ubiquitous plans to boost its profitability by expanding its range of customers, such as audio-visual equipment makers, said president Masahiko Kawauchi. Sales of software to Nintendo, maker of the DS handheld game console, accounted for 88 percent of Ubiquitous's sales during the previous fiscal year.

Renesas Technology Corp., Japan's second-biggest chipmaker, was Ubiquitous's No. 2 customer, accounting for 7 percent of sales. Ubiquitous expects to boost its royalties from Renesas chips that use its software.

The creation of NEO is ``revolutionary'' because its pre- listing screening allows people to get a good idea of the companies they are thinking of investing in, said Katsumi Udagawa of Ichiyoshi Securities Co. in Tokyo in a interview.

If Neo's debut attracts individual investors to stocks in start-up companies, it could have an impact on other equity markets, he added.
checkstocklist.com