DoCoMo sets share sale price

NTT DoCoMo is raising more than $7 billion to use on acquisitions.

TOKYO, Japan -- Wireless giant NTT DoCoMo will sell 400,000 new shares for $7.14 billion (826.4 billion yen) to fund an aggressive acquisition drive.

The Japanese cellular group said Monday the shares will sell for 2.066 million yen each -- a 3 percent discount to that day's close of 2.13 million yen.

DoCoMo, the biggest company on the Tokyo Stock Exchange by market value, will use the money in part to pay for its recent $9.8 billion tie-up with AT&T Wireless.

Payment is due on February 22 and the new shares will begin trading on the market the following day. The shares will be sold to wealthy investors and international institutions.

Biggest share sale by a Japanese company

The offering, the biggest yet by a listed Japanese company, will release at least 400,000 new shares on to the market.

Analysts say that of the new shares being issued, 55 percent will be sold to private investors and the rest will be divided among institutional investors in Japan, Europe and the United States.

Depending on demand, the company can issue as many as 60,000 more shares for U.S. and European investors.

Shares higher since mid-January

The new stock will represent nearly 5 percent of DoCoMo's 9.58 million outstanding shares

DoCoMo says it needs the proceeds from the share sale to pay for part of a $15.8 billion (¥1.8 trillion) global investment spree to take equity stakes in other carriers.

DoCoMo shares closed Monday at ¥2.13 million, down from Friday's close of ¥2.16 million but in line with weakness across the broader Tokyo market.

The shares are still about 9.5 percent higher than on January 12, when the share sale was announced.

DoCoMo was partially spun off from parent Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp as part of a deregulation effort, but the former state monopoly still owns 67.1 percent of the wireless carrier.

Depending on the exact number of new shares issued, NTT's stake in the company will fall to between 60.06 percent and 64.43 percent, DoCoMo says.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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