*

Bain scrapped October IPO for Kioxia

*

Kioxia is first company to use new IPO rules

*

Rules allow Kioxia to sound out investors

(Adds company filing)

By Miho Uranaka and Sam Nussey

TOKYO, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Bain Capital-backed Kioxia

filed a registration statement on Friday which will allow the

Japanese chipmaker to sound out investors for an initial public

offering.

Kioxia's filing indicates it aims to conduct an IPO some

time from December through June 2025.

The chipmaker is targeting December, two people familiar

with the matter said.

Bain scrapped plans for an IPO in October after investors

pushed the U.S. buyout firm to almost halve the 1.5 trillion yen

($9.79 billion) valuation it was seeking, Reuters reported.

Kioxia is the first company to use new rules that allow

firms to test investor appetite before seeking listing approval

from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The chipmaker expects to receive approval from the bourse in

late November, the sources said, with the indicative price for

the shares disclosed at that time.

The schedule is left flexible in the filings under the new

rules.

While the Japanese stock market has been volatile in

recent months, investors globally are reassessing the outlook

for chip-sector firms as the U.S. transitions to a new

government under Donald Trump, whose policies shook up global

trade in his first term.

Kioxia, formerly Toshiba Memory, has been hammered by a

downturn in the market for memory chips with the industry

debating the durability of a recent recovery in prices.

A Bain-led consortium acquired Kioxia from scandal-hit

Toshiba six years ago for 2 trillion yen.

The chipmaker is readying capacity expansion on the back of the

boom in chips for artificial intelligence applications.

Morgan Stanley, Nomura and BofA Securities are joint global

coordinators.

($1 = 153.2200 yen)