Go Inc., Japan’s largest taxi-hailing app, surged in its Tokyo trading debut on Tuesday after raising ¥88.6B, about $552.6M, in the country’s biggest IPO of the year so far. The stock jumped as much as 23% above its ¥2,400 offer price before easing to an 8.8% gain after the midday break, with BlackRock, Wellington, and M&G Investment Management committing to buy in at the offer price. Founded in 1977 as a taxi operator and backed by Goldman Sachs-affiliated funds and NTT Docomo, Go competes with Uber in a domestic market slow to digitize and runs its own in-app payment service, GO Pay. It plans to put the proceeds toward developing its robotaxi business and funding expansion, including acquisitions inside and beyond ride-hailing.
