Nomura plans huge Japan stock sale

McDonald's Japan posted the biggest stock offering there this year, selling close to $1 billion in stock in late July

By CNN's Alex Frew McMillan in Hong Kong

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Leading Japan think tank Nomura Research Institute plans to sell stock to the public for the first time in October.

The stock sale -- known as an initial public offering (IPO) -- would be one of the biggest and highest-profile in Japan this year.

Nomura hopes to raise about $200 million (24 billion yen) by selling two million new shares to the public on October 2. The proposed price is 12,000 yen per share.

But the offering will also include 11.6 million existing shares, mainly being sold by other Nomura companies. That will boost the total size of the offering to $1.36 billion (163 billion yen).

Nomura Research plans to list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Funds for computer research

Nomura Research gets 80 percent of its sales from developing computer systems. It wants to use the money to expand those operations and to pay back debt.

It posted sales of $1.8 billion (218 billion yen) for the business year through March.

McDonald's Japan has the biggest offering so far this year in the country. It floated just under $1 billion in stock (113 billion yen) on July 26, becoming the first overseas operation of the American burger giant to go public.

Advertising agency Dentsu, Japan's largest, plans an offering that is expected to surpass that later this year. It will likely go public in October or November.

Nomura Securities stock gets a pop

Nomura Securities, Japan's largest brokerage, was getting a stock pop out of the announcement, which the think take made late on Tuesday.

The brokerage owns 5 percent of the think tank directly and more through other entities it controls, like Nomura Land & Building Co. The brokerage will also be the lead underwriter of the offering.

Nomura Securities stock closed with a gain of 5.1 percent to 2,280 yen on Wednesday.

Nomura Research postponed an offering earlier this year when the Nikkei crashed to 16-year lows. But it has now rescheduled, despite a market that is again plumbing fresh depths.

The Nikkei closed Monday at its lowest point since December 1984, though it has rallied a little since.