SoftBank planning additional London listing for Arm - report
Softbank Corp.
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07:46 20/03/24
Japan’s SoftBank is reportedly planning to list some of its stake in chip designer Arm on the London Stock Exchange, having previously planned to only use the US market.
Bloomberg cited people familiar with the matter as saying that Softbank 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. The size and timing of the sale hasn’t been finalised and plans for the listing still may change.
SoftBank bought Cambridge-based Arm in 2016. According to Bloomberg, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has led overtures to senior SoftBank management to convince them to list Arm in the UK. Earlier this week, Chris Philp, the Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy, told reporters the government was working with the company to ensure there would be a listing in Arm’s home country.
Even a secondary UK listing comes with limitations, including Arm's exclusion from the FTSE 100 index, Bloomberg noted.
It was understood that SoftBank is seeking a valuation of at least $60bn for Arm, aiming for a higher amount than it would have got from its proposed sale of the chip designer to Nvidia, which fell through due to opposition from regulators on national security and competition grounds.