By Miho Uranaka and Echo Wang
TOKYO/NEW YORK, March 11 (Reuters) - The initial public offering of SoftBank's PayPay is likely to price around the low end of its marketing range as war in the Middle East roil markets, said two people familiar with the matter.
The IPO book was covered more than five times, one of the people said. It has now closed and pricing will be finalised after U.S. market hours on Wednesday, the person said.
The Japanese payment app operator was offering 55 million American depositary
shares, priced $17 to $20 apiece, a filing this month showed, targeting a valuation of up to $13.4 billion.
The people declined to be identified as the information is not public. PayPay declined to comment.
PayPay has played a central role in encouraging Japanese consumers to move away from a preference for cash by offering rebates on its payments app.
However, it has had a bumpy IPO path. Its IPO roadshow was initially postponed after markets were jolted by conflict in the Middle East, Reuters reported last week.
It had already postponed the IPO last year during the U.S. government shutdown, which disrupted regulatory processes and delayed regulatory filing.
PayPay plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol "PAYP". Reuters first reported its plans for a U.S. listing in 2023.
(Reporting by Miho Uranaka and Echo Wang; Writing by Sam Nussey; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee, Himani Sarkar and Christopher Cushing)
