Arm Ltd, the British chip designer owned by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp, is likely to aim to raise at least $8 billion from U.S. stock market this year, Reuters reported on Sunday, quoting people familiar with the matter.
Arm is expected to confidentially submit paperwork for its initial public offering (IPO) in late April, the sources reportedly said. The listing is expected to happen later this year and the exact timing will be determined by market conditions, they added.
SoftBank has picked four investment banks to lead what is expected to be the most high-profile stock market flotation in recent years, according to Reuters. Goldman Sachs Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Barclays and Mizuho Financial Group are expected to be the lead underwriters for the deal, the sources said, adding that no bank has been picked for the much-coveted “lead left” position yet. The Australian Financial Review reported on the lead banks earlier on Sunday.
The preparations for the IPO are expected to be kick-started in the US in the coming days and the valuation range has not yet been finalized but Cambridge, England-based Arm is hoping to be valued at more than $50 billion during its share sale, the sources said.
Arm said last week it would pursue a US-only listing this year.
SoftBank has been pursuing a listing for Arm since its deal to sell the chip designer to Nvidia Corp for $40 billion collapsed last year because of objections from US and European antitrust regulators, according to the report.
According to its website, in Q3 FY22 Arm reported:
– Total revenue $746 million, up 28 percent year on year (y-o-y)
– Arm partners shipped a record 8.0 billion Arm-based chips, taking total shipped to date to more than a quarter of a trillion (250 billion)
– Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) at $450 million; adjusted EBITDA margin exceeding 50 percent
– Licensing revenue at $300 million (up 65 percent y-o-y) including new strategic long-term agreements with four key customers (an automotive OEM, cloud service provider, a leading microcontroller manufacturer, and a consumer electronics semiconductor vendor)
– Royalty revenue at $446 million (up 12 percent y-o-y) driven in part by strong demand for Arm-based server technology and Arm-based chips in automotive, as well as Armv9 processor technology gaining traction in premium smartphones and cloud server applications
– Strong revenue growth in all target markets with double- or triple-digit revenue increases across automotive, client (consumer devices), infrastructure and IoT
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