SoftBank plans additional London listing for Arm initial public offering
- Chris Philp, the UK’s Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy, said the government was working with SoftBank to ensure there would be a listing in Arm’s home country
- SoftBank is seeking a valuation of at least US$60 billion for Arm, a higher amount than it would have got from its proposed sale of the chip designer to Nvidia
SoftBank Group is planning to list some of its stake in chip designer Arm Ltd on the London Stock Exchange, switching from an earlier plan to only use the US market, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Japanese company is adjusting plans for an initial public offering of its chip technology division and will likely still list the majority of what it offers for trading on US exchanges, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter has not been made public. The size and timing of the sale has not been finalised and plans for the listing still may change, according to the people.
Arm, which SoftBank acquired in 2016, is based in Cambridge, England. Arm was one of the UK’s most important technology companies before the purchase and still has the majority of its operations there. An IPO that would list only in the US would be a blow to the UK government and capital market.
Earlier this week, Chris Philp, the UK’s Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy, told reporters that the government was working with the company to ensure there would be a listing in Arm’s home country.
Arm sells and licenses technology that is used by semiconductors in everything from smartphones to super computers. The pervasiveness of its products has made its planned IPO a closely watched event in the US$550 billion chip industry.
The chip technology provider’s path to becoming a publicly traded company again has been complicated by the slump in semiconductor shares this year. Investors have sold chip-related equity, concerned that a huge run-up in industry earnings sparked by shortages will end with a supply glut as demand slows and more production is brought on line.
SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son said he plans to sell a portion of Arm before the end of the company’s financial year next March.
