Chip giant Arm will return to the London Stock Exchange in a huge boost for the market.
The Cambridge-based chip designer will see some of its shares listed on the exchange after its £30billion sale to American tech firm Nvidia fell through.
Its Japanese owner Softbank has been looking at options for a stock market float after it was forced to abandon the sale over competition concerns.
Coming home: Cambridge-based chip designer Arm will see some of its shares listed on the exchange after its £30bn sale to American tech firm Nvidia fell through
Arm looked set to opt for an exclusive US listing in New York over fears tech companies are undervalued by UK markets.
But yesterday Bloomberg reported it will list some of the stake in London – a win for ministers who stepped up a charm offensive to bring the business back to the UK.
The Daily Mail revealed this week Chancellor Rishi Sunak has met twice in the past six weeks with executives from Arm and Softbank to plead London’s case.
Talks were held in London with Masayoshi Son, chief executive of Arm-owner Softbank, and Arm boss Rene Haas at the first meeting. Sunak floated a potential golden share, preventing future foreign takeovers.
And technology minister Chris Philp said this week the Government was ‘working closely’ with management. He added that Arm had said ‘initial comments suggesting a Nasdaq listing was sort of premature’.
The news marks a win for the Daily Mail’s campaign to Back British Tech, which called for Arm to return to London.
Arm, founded in 1990, is based in Cambridge, and designs chips that run virtually every smartphone on the planet. Customers who pay to use its designs include Apple, Qualcomm and Samsung Electronics.
The company employs about 6,400 people globally, with about 3,500 in the UK.
Arm has not flourished under Softbank’s six-year ownership, and calls for it to return home followed the collapse of its sale to Nvidia this year.
It is thought Arm’s primary listing will be in the US, where tech titans typically reach lofty valuations.
But part-floating in the UK is a vote of confidence in the London Stock Exchange, which has historically been associated with older, slow-growing industrial giants.
Sources told Bloomberg the size and timing of the sale had not been finalised.
Arm declined to comment.
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