UK Chip Giant Arm Files for US Share Listing

Facts

• British microchip firm Arm has officially filed to sell its shares in the US, having stated in March this year that it did not plan to list its shares in London.¹
• The press release, published on Saturday, stated that Softbank-owned Arm had recently confidentially submitted a draft F-1 form to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to hold an initial public offering later this year.²
• Arm has been called the "crown jewel" of the UK's technology sector, and the desire for the company's share listing to stay in the UK fueled reports in January this year that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak himself had been in talks with Softbank.³
• Arm will reportedly be seeking to raise between $8B and $10B on Nasdaq, although Arm said it has not determined the prince range or size of the offering.⁴
• Softbank has remained insistent on pushing forward with the IPO, despite such US listings down approximately 22% at $2.35B in the year-to-date, according to Dealogic.⁵
• Softbank had previously agreed to sell Arm to chip designer Nvidia for $40B, with the deal collapsing due to antitrust regulator concerns.⁶

Sources: ¹BBC News, ²Engadget, ³TimesNow, ⁴Reuters, ⁵The Economic Times, and ⁶Baystreet.ca.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by CityAM. The decision to bail on London's market in favor of the US is a major blow to the UK when considering that Arm's initial public offering will be one of the largest of 2023. The decision is part of a wider move by British-based companies to ditch the UK for overseas markets — this is not a good sign for future trends.
• Narrative B, as provided by Go Trading Asia. The decision by Arm is a sign that the global initial public offering market is beginning to recover. While the US remains concerned over a recession, decisions by major companies to attract major public funding worldwide — especially in Asia — is a good sign for the global economy overall.