Rakuten Inc. Chairman and CEO Hiroshi Mikitani, left, appears at a March 12 news conference alongside Hiroya Masuda, president and CEO of Japan Post Holdings Co. (Ryo Inoue)
Online retailing giant Rakuten Inc. will receive its biggest capital injection since its establishment in 1997 with the bulk of it coming from Japan Post Holdings Co. to help it develop its still fledging mobile phone operations.
The 150 billion yen ($1.4 billion) investment by Japan Post Holdings will make it Rakuten’s fourth largest shareholder and give it a roughly 8-percent stake in the company.
In addition to Japan Post Holdings, Rakuten will also receive capital from a subsidiary of Chinese information technology company Tencent Holdings Ltd. as well as U.S. retailer Walmart Inc. The total capital injection will come to about 242.3 billion yen.