[THE INVESTOR] Japanese duty-free operator JTC said on March 19 its shares will be listed on Korea’s secondary bourse early next month as the company pushes to expand its presence in the global market.

The firm, which operates 24 stores in Japan, passed the Korea Exchange’s preliminary review to go public on the secondary KOSDAQ market last month.

“We will become Japan’s No. 1 duty-free operator with some 100 billion yen (US$945.40 million) of revenue within the next five years,” CEO Ku Chul-mo said during a press conference in Seoul.

The company also aims to launch tax refund businesses in Korea, starting with Seoul, the southeastern port city of Busan and the country‘s southern resort island of Jeju.

Founded in 1993 as an electrical appliance store in Japan, JTC logged 41.3 billion yen in sales and 2.46 billion yen in operating profit from March to November last year. Sales from Chinese nationals accounted for nearly 84 percent of the firm’s total revenue in 2016.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)