Ala Moana Center
may issue public stock

Daiei Inc. may list shares
of the shopping center on the
Nasdaq exchange

From staff and wire reports

The Japanese retailing company that owns Ala Moana Center may take at least part of the ownership public, making it possible for investors to buy shares in the popular shopping center on the Nasdaq market.

Daiei Inc., which bought a 60 percent share in Ala Moana in 1982 and acquired full ownership in 1995, said it aims to raise money by going public with several of its retail businesses in Japan and is considering doing the same with Ala Moana.

Isao Nakauchi, Daiei president, told the Reuter news service in a Tokyo interview that Daiei wants to become the first Japanese company to form a holding company as soon as the Japanese government completes its move to lift a ban on holding companies.

The parliament voted in June to lift the 1947 ban, which was imposed to break up the giant industrial conglomerates that the United States said had contributed to Japan's war effort.

Nakauchi said Daiei, a retailing giant primarily in the supermarket business, has enough assets to balance its debt but would like to pay down debt and improve the value of Daiei's stock.

One of its businesses, Lawson Inc., owner of 6,000 convenience stores in Japan, is worth more than $8.4 billion by itself and Daiei is planning to list shares in that business, Nakauchi said.

Next year Daiei will list shares in a Tokyo Department store, Ginza Printemps, and another retail business, Daiei Photo Enterprise Inc., he said.

The value of Ala Moana Center has not been disclosed. More than 15 years ago, it was appraised at more than $700 million and it has since gone through a number of renovations.

Daiei and Equitable Life Assurance Society USA, in a 60-40 partnership, bought the center in 1982 for $282 million. In 1995, Daiei bought Equitable's 40 percent share for $410 million, becoming sole owner of center, which has about 1.5 million square feet of retail space.

Improvements under way in the center include the development of a 160,000-square-foot Neiman-Marcus department store and a Nordstrom's department store of more than 200,000 square feet.