Arm intends to list on the Nasdaq Electronic Stock Exchange a minimum of 95.5 million shares, at a price between $47 and $51. (Photo: Getty Images)
New York — The British champion of microprocessors Arm, a subsidiary of the Japanese SoftBank, is targeting a valuation of up to $52 billion for its IPO, which promises to be one of the most important in recent years in the sector technological.
According to documents published Tuesday on the website of the watchdog of the American Stock Exchange (SEC), Arm hopes to raise between 4.5 and 5.2 billion dollars on this occasion. The company, a world reference in the architecture of semiconductors then manufactured under license for almost the entire global smartphone market, announced at the end of August its intention to go public, favoring New York over London.
This introduction or “IPO” is being watched with attention by the financial markets, while operations of this type have become rarer in recent months, particularly under the influence of increases in interest rates.
The number of introductions worldwide has thus fallen by more than 60% in 2022 over one year, for amounts falling by 45%. Under these conditions, Arm’s operation would constitute one of the largest IPOs in the technology sector since Alibaba’s on Wall Street in 2014, which then raised $25 billion.
The valuation target announced Tuesday by Arm is, however, lower than the more than $60 billion initially hoped for by SoftBank Group. The Japanese group had in fact recently paid some 16 billion dollars to take over the 25% of Arm which had until then been held by its Vision Fund unit.
Majority shareholder
In detail, Arm intends to list on the Nasdaq electronic stock exchange – with a strong technological component – a minimum of 95.5 million shares, at a price between 47 and 51 dollars. In case of strong demand, the number of titles could reach 102.5 million.
Softbank will remain the majority shareholder and is expected to retain approximately 90.6% of the shares. This share will fall to 89.9% if demand is strong and the number of listed securities increases to 102.5 million.
Many tech giants such as Nvidia, Apple, Samsung Electronics and Intel are in the running to invest in Arm once the company is listed, according to the press.
Arm will keep its headquarters in Cambridge and could subsequently consider a second listing, on the London Stock Exchange, where it was listed until its acquisition by Softbank in 2016.
Founded in 1990, the British company has around 6,000 employees in Europe, Asia and the United States. Its revenue for 2022 was stable at $2.7 billion.
Its processors have “provided cutting-edge computing to more than 99% of the world’s smartphones” in 2022, it assures, estimating that “around 70% of the world’s population uses products” based on its technology.
SoftBank Group, a Japanese investment giant, has experienced many difficulties in its orientations in recent years, such as with the American shared office giant WeWork. He had announced his intention to reintroduce Arm to the stock market after the failure, in early 2022, of the sale of the British company to the American Nvidia due to “significant regulatory obstacles”.
