By Kosaku Narioka


Imperial Hotel's stock price fell sharply after the company said it planned to offer shares at a discount as part of efforts to increase the number of shares available for trading in the market.

Shares were recently 3.5% lower at 1,007 yen ($6.68) on Tuesday morning after falling as much as 3.6% earlier.

Imperial Hotel said Monday after the market closed that it has set the price at Y1,007 for a previously announced offering of up to 10.7 million shares currently held by major shareholders, such as Sapporo Breweries and Mizuho Bank.

The Japanese hotel operator has said it plans to raise the ratio of shares available for trading by public investors to 25% by the end March 2026 to maintain its listing status in the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Standard section. The ratio was 9.1% as of the end of September 2022.

The company had about 118.6 million shares outstanding as of the end of December.


Write to Kosaku Narioka at kosaku.narioka@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

02-26-24 2141ET