The resale of Hermes bags, brand-name jewelry and other luxury items is a thriving industry in Japan, with one critical bottleneck: Building inventory is tough.
Sou Inc. offers a solution: pawnshops dedicated only to buying up secondhand merchandise. Business has been so good for founder Shinsuke Sakimoto — who posted profit of ¥1.14 billion ($11 million) on sales of ¥22.7 billion for the year ending August — that he's taken the company public.
Shares of Sou opened for trading in Tokyo on Thursday at ¥4,100 a share, 24 percent higher than the IPO price of ¥3,300, before closing at ¥3,900.
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