SmartNews, the Japanese news app that was once valued at $2 billion, won approval last week to list in Tokyo at a price that marks it down by about 80%. It was one of five companies the Tokyo Stock Exchange cleared between Nov. 10 and Nov. 13, filling out a December calendar after a thin year for Japanese share sales.

Also cleared was WHI Holdings, a maker of human-resources software for big companies, which was approved on Friday for the exchange's top-tier Prime Market. The exchange said the sale of existing WHI shares is expected to total at least 100 billion yen.

Seven companies are now scheduled to start trading in Tokyo in December, according to the exchange's list of new listings. For investors elsewhere in Asia, the two Dec. 15 debuts will show what price buyers put on a Japanese startup whose business Bloomberg said has been hurt by artificial intelligence, and on a profitable software business sold by its financial owners.

SmartNews: an 80% markdown

SmartNews shareholders plan to sell 8.1 million shares at an indicative price of 1,390 yen each, or about 11.2 billion yen ($70 million), Bloomberg reported on Friday in an article carried by The Japan Times, citing a regulatory filing made Thursday. The price implies a market value of about 43.1 billion yen, against about 219 billion yen at the company's Series F funding round in 2021, the report said.

The exchange's outline of the listing, dated Nov. 12, shows the deal consists only of existing shares: 8,081,500 in the main sale and up to 1,212,200 more in an over-allotment. No new shares are being issued, and the number of shares outstanding stays at 30,978,918. Ken Suzuki is the largest seller with 1,885,600 shares, followed by a Globis fund with 1,029,500 and Shogo Kawada with 1,011,100.

The indicative figure is also below the roughly 50 billion yen valuation that Bloomberg reported in October the company was seeking, after it explored a sale to another company and did not find a buyer. Bloomberg noted that the valuation could still change, since some issuers start with a conservative indication.

Order-taking runs from Nov. 30 to Dec. 4, the price is set on Dec. 7 and the shares are due to trade on the Growth Market on Dec. 15, according to the outline. Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities is the lead manager, with Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities, Nomura Securities and six other brokerages also underwriting.

Founded in 2012, SmartNews built an audience in Japan and the United States and became one of Japan's few startups valued above $1 billion. Bloomberg said the spread of AI as a route to news has made that valuation harder to defend. The company cut 40% of its staff in the U.S. and China in 2023 and has since been building its advertising business and adding a subscription service, Bloomberg reported in October.

WHI Holdings: a 100 billion yen sale

WHI Holdings said in a statement on Friday that the exchange had approved its listing on the Prime Market for Dec. 15. The company develops and sells "COMPANY," an integrated human-resources software package for large enterprises that it said is used by about 1,200 corporate groups.

Three shareholders are selling 42,735,200 shares, with up to 6,410,200 more in an over-allotment, the exchange's outline shows. The company is issuing no new shares. Of the main sale, 25,534,300 shares are earmarked for investors in Japan and 17,200,900 for overseas buyers, a split that will be fixed when the price is set on Dec. 7.

The sellers are two partnerships named BCPE Wolf Cayman, which are offering 25,102,700 shares between them, and Apfarge Investment Pte. Ltd., which is offering 17,632,500. WHI's forecast document says the company pays management fees under an agreement with Bain Capital Private Equity and a second investor.

The main sale covers about 28% of WHI's 154,683,000 shares. In a note on its listings page, the exchange said it applied special provisions for large offerings because the sale is expected to reach at least 100 billion yen, and that WHI has submitted a plan to meet the Prime Market's requirement on tradable shares. The price range is due on Nov. 30. Nomura Securities, Goldman Sachs Japan, SMBC Nikko Securities and BofA Securities Japan are the lead managers, WHI said.

WHI forecast revenue of 71.7 billion yen for the year ending December 2026, up 9.1%, and operating profit of 24.5 billion yen, up 80.5%. It expects a net loss attributable to owners of 636 million yen, compared with a profit of 1.75 billion yen in 2025. The company's reconciliation table lists 7.4 billion yen of costs from a June refinancing of its buyout loans and a 9.4 billion yen tax effect from an October merger with the previous WHI Holdings entity. Adjusted for those and other items, it forecast profit of 17.9 billion yen.

A fuller December after a thin year

The other approvals are smaller. FOLIO Holdings, which describes its business as financial infrastructure and AI-based asset management, is due to list on the Growth Market on Dec. 17. It will issue 3,050,000 new shares while holders sell 13,899,500, of which 8,218,500 come from LY Corp., according to the exchange's outline.

Berry, which makes head-shaping helmets for infants, is scheduled for Dec. 18, and Beyont, approved on Nov. 10, for Dec. 11. They join NOTA, which Bloomberg described as a luxury villa operator, on Dec. 9 and M&A Loyal Advisory on Dec. 3, both approved earlier.

The cluster follows a slow stretch. Japan had 32 initial public offerings in the first nine months of 2026, the lowest for that period since 2012, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and published in October. Bloomberg linked the decline to the exchange's plan to raise the bar for companies to stay listed in its startup section, and to a shortage of AI-related issuers of the kind that have driven deals elsewhere in Asia.

Recent debuts have been uneven. Capital Times has earlier coverage of Allganize's first day of trading in Tokyo.

The next dates to watch are Nov. 30, when SmartNews opens its books and WHI is due to publish its price range, and Dec. 7, when both deals are priced.