TOKYO, Oct 1 Sony Corp's financial unit said on Monday it has set its initial public offe

TOKYO, Oct 1 (Reuters) Sony Corp's financial unit said on Monday it has set its initial public offering price at 400,000 yen, the top end of its 380,000-400,000 price range, valuing the offering up to 348 billion yen ($3.03 billion).

Proceeds from the IPO, Japan's largest market debut since Aozora Bank's 380 billion yen listing last November, are expected to enable Sony to strengthen its core electronics operations, which compete with South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Japan's Sharp Corp Sony Financial Holdings, which oversees the group's online banking and insurance businesses, will list its shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Oct. 11.

Sony will offer up to 795,000 existing shares, cutting its stake in the wholly owned unit to 60 percent. The financial unit plans to sell 75,000 new shares.

With 90 percent of its revenues and 80 percent of its recurring profit coming from life insurance operations, Sony Financial is set to become Japan's second listed life insurer after T