EAccess Announces eMobile Share Issue
EAccess Ltd. said on Wednesday its mobile unit will raise 42 billion yen ($359 million) from issuing new shares, while the unit has also secured a 220 billion yen credit line from banks. Under the agreement, the mobile unit, eMobile Ltd., will issue new shares totaling 28 billion yen on April 25. EAccess is one of three firms to be awarded mobile licences by the Japanese government last year. The deal is the largest nonrecourse project-finance loan in Japan for a company whose services have not begun yet, according to EAccess.
The other buyers will include trading house Mitsui & Co Ltd., which will take 5 billion yen-worth of the issue, and U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs, which is spending 4.93 billion yen. Last year, Goldman invested 25 billion yen in eMobile, becoming the second-largest investor in it after EAccess. EAccess said eMobile will then issue additional new shares worth 14 billion yen in June, but it did not disclose the names of the companies that will buy those shares.