“It will bring huge profits to investors if it is successful,” he said, adding that it will take at least one to two years to sell vision funds after listing.”It is known that Son Jung-eui leaves advice to the outside and does not engage in deliberation.

Japan’s Softbank is negotiating with Vision Fund to acquire the remaining stake in British semiconductor designer Arm. Japan’s Softbank is said to be negotiating with Vision Fund to acquire the remaining stake in British semiconductor designer Arm. It is known that Samsung of Korea also expressed its intention to acquire Softbank several times. Softbank is in negotiations to acquire a 25% stake in ARM held by Vision Fund 1, a venture capital fund it operates. Currently, ARM’s stake is divided into 75% of Softbank and 25% of Vision Fund.The negotiations come as SoftBank is currently preparing to list ARM on the Nasdaq sometime next month. The market capitalization is expected to reach $60 billion to $70 billion. Once the negotiations are completed, Softbank expects to give huge profits to investors in Vision Fund 1, including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIE) and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala.Until now, Vision Fund 1 has suffered huge losses due to failed investments in companies such as WeWork, a shared office company, and Didi Chuxing, a vehicle-sharing company.The acquisition appears to have been made in consideration of the possibility that the plan to sell ARM shares in the market after the IPO will take at least one to two years considering the size of the stake and that the stock will fall after the listing. Softbank Chairman Son Jung-eui said he is currently consulting external investment bank Rain Group and is not participating in related deliberations.In addition, the acquisition price under discussion between the two sides is not known, and there is a possibility that the negotiations may fail.Another source said that if negotiations take place, Softbank could hold about 85 to 90% of its stake by reducing the size of the sale of its stake in ARM at the time of IPO. Softbank acquired ARM for $32 billion in 2016. ARM is a British company that designs application processors (APs) and graphics processing units (GPUs) for smartphones and holds related patents.

SOPHIA KIM

US ASIA JOURNAL

Major foreign media reported that the British government has resumed talks with major shareholder Softbank to list ARM, a British-based semiconductor fabless company, on the London stock market. With discussions on listing suspended after the resignation of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, attention is being paid to whether his successor, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, will be able to successfully persuade Softbank again.

Citing unnamed sources, major foreign media said Prime Minister Sunak and British Treasury Secretary Andrew Griffith held talks with ARM CEO Renee Haas and Chief Legal Officer Spencer Collins last month. Softbank Chairman Sohn Jung-eui also participated in the meeting via video. ARM is known to be a key semiconductor design company that is also in talks with Samsung in South Korea to acquire.

Major foreign media commented that the talks between the two sides were very constructive and positive. However, it is said that the British government and executives of the London Stock Exchange are still having difficulty persuading Softbank as the listing requires complicated procedures and high costs.

Until now, the British government has worked hard to persuade Softbank to push ahead with a plan to list ARM on the New York and London stock markets simultaneously. This is because they were concerned that the British economy would be hit hard if ARM pushed for listing only in New York, not London, at a time when it was pushing to strengthen its technology sector. ARM is a company that provides design IP, which is the core of semiconductor production, and was one of the key technology companies in the UK in the past, and most of its businesses still remain in the UK.

In response, former British Prime Minister Johnson sent a letter urging Chairman Sohn to be listed in May last year. Former Prime Minister Liz Truss, who announced his resignation 45 days after taking office, also reportedly planned to re-promote negotiations with Softbank in September last year.

However, Bloomberg said Softbank has decided to temporarily suspend discussions on listing on the London Stock Exchange. Analysts say the decision was made in the wake of political turmoil in the UK, with former Prime Minister Johnson announcing his plan to resign and a large number of senior officials resigning.

Earlier, Softbank signed an ARM sale contract with Nvidia in the U.S. in 2020, but failed to merge due to opposition from global IT companies. Since then, it has announced that it will proceed with listing companies instead of mergers from February last year. Chairman Sohn has repeatedly expressed his intention to focus on listing on the New York Stock Exchange because of his wide investment base and attractive corporate valuation.

At the time, major foreign media said through anonymous sources that most small investors believed it was more appropriate to launch an IPO in New York rather than London, adding that Softbank is unlikely to change its mind to push ahead with listing on the New York Stock Exchange instead of the London Stock Exchange.

JENNIFER KIM

ASIA JOURNAL