Arm plans transfer of shares in China JV to speed up U.S. IPO - FT

[March 30, 2022]  (Reuters) - UK's Arm Ltd is planning to transfer shares in its Chinese joint venture to a SoftBank Group special purpose vehicle to speed up its initial public offering plans, The Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar the matter.

The share transfer, if successful, will leave the joint venture tied to Arm headquarters through a licensing agreement, instead of the 47.3% equity stake it holds today, the report said.

The chip designing company will continue to get licensing revenues from Arm China but will not need to audit the unit's financials, the report also said.

Arm declined to comment, while SoftBank was not immediately available to respond to Reuters' queries.

Last week, Reuters had reported SoftBank was planning to pick Goldman Sachs Group as the lead underwriter on Arm's IPO that could value the company at as much as $60 billion. It is aiming a Nasdaq listing by March 2023.

The Japanese conglomerate had announced a deal to sell Arm to Nvidia in 2020, but the U.S. Federal Trade Commission sued to block it late last year, arguing that it would be detrimental to competition in nascent markets for chips in self-driving cars and a new category of networking chips.

(Reporting by Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V)

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