Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Wall Street's most profitable firm, raised 124 billion yen ($1.04 billion) selling its Japan golf course operator in the country's second-biggest initial public offering this year.

Accordia's shares were priced at 195,000 yen each, at the top end of an indicative range, the company said in a statement to the Tokyo Stock Exchange. It sold 528,000 existing shares, 50,000 new shares and 57,800 over-allotment shares in the golf unit, which is wholly owned by Goldman.

``The time for recouping investments is here after economic recovery has helped companies raise their profitability,'' said Fumiyuki Nakanishi, a Tokyo-based equity strategist at SMBC Friend Securities Co., the brokerage unit of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. ``It's more profitable for overseas investors to sell shares to the public than sell their stakes to a third party.''

The share sale is the second Tokyo initial public offering by New York-based Goldman this year. The Japanese economy will next month complete its longest expansion since World War II, helping the U.S. investment bank to profit from its $8 billion of property investments in the country since 1997.

Daiwa Securities SMBC Co. and Goldman arranged the share sale. Tokyo-based Accordia will debut on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Nov. 1.

Japan IPOs

Goldman sold shares in Japan Hotel & Resort Inc., a real estate trust, to the public in February. Since then the shares have gained more than 4 percent.

The sale is second in size this year to an initial public offering by Nomura Real Estate Holdings Inc., and bigger than IPOs by Nippon Commercial Investment Corp., a real-estate investment trust, and Idemitsu Kosan Co., Japan's second-largest oil refiner.

Idemitsu shares jumped 13 percent on their first day of trading in Tokyo today on speculation that plans to invest in oil exploration will boost earnings. Shares in Pacific Golf Group International Holdings KK, Japan's largest golf course operator owned by Dallas-based buyout firm Lone Star Funds, are down 24 percent this year after starting trading on December 15.

To contact the reporter on this story: Takahiko Hyuga in Tokyo at thyuga@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 24, 2006 03:09 EDT