** PayPay's PAYP.O shares up 20% to $21.80 premarket, a day after Japanese payments app's Nasdaq debut amid a scarcity of new listings
** SoftBank Group 9984.T-backed firm's stock closed at $18.16 on Thurs, notching debut-day gain of 13.5%, after IPO of about 55 mln ADSs priced one dollar below the expected range at $16 for roughly $880 mln total proceeds
** PAYP pushed ahead with the offering even as the Middle East conflict continues to rock global markets, and while some other IPO hopefuls have opted to delay their listing plans
** The deal marks the first U.S. listing of a SoftBank majority investment since blockbuster 2023 IPO of chip designer Arm ARM.O
** Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Mizuho and Morgan Stanley led a 20-firm underwriting group for PAYP's IPO
(Lance Tupper is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own)
((lance.tupper@tr.com 1-646-279-6380))
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