Arm boss to scoop £30m from US float as annual sales slip back

The boss of Arm is set for a £30million bonus when its owner lists it in New York with a value of £50billion.

Chief executive Rene Haas is in line to receive a £15million cash award, on top of a £15million stock award, when the initial public offering (IPO) is completed.

Details of the payday came as Arm’s owner, Japanese investment giant SoftBank, confirmed that the Cambridge-based firm – whose chips feature in almost every smartphone in the world – would list next month on the Nasdaq and not in London.

‘We estimate that approximately 70 per cent of the world’s population uses Arm-based products,’ a spokesman for the company said ahead of what will be the biggest stock market listing in the US in nearly two years.

The roadshow for the deal will start in early September with Goldman Sachs, Barclays, JP Morgan Chase and Mizuho as the lead advisers, alongside another 24 banks, the spokesman said.

SoftBank previously expected Arm to raise between £6billion and £8billion of new funds through the IPO but the total could now be less after the Japanese group bought the 25 per cent stake it did not directly own from its venture capital fund, Vision Fund.

The decision to list in New York has been perceived as a major blow for the City after a strong lobbying effort to get SoftBank to choose London.

Arm was dual-listed on the FTSE 100 and the Nasdaq before being bought by SoftBank for £24billion in 2016.

But listings in the US are increasingly preferred by tech entrepreneurs because they garner higher valuations.

Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: ‘SoftBank’s filing to list Arm in New York will cement disappointment that London has been shunned, even though the decision was announced back in March.

‘Arm was very much seen as a British success story, but SoftBank is pulling no sentimental punches here and wants the best bang for its buck.’

But Arm faces headwinds as it gears up for its public markets returns, with annual sales slipping 1 per cent on the back of weaker smartphone sales.

It has fared better than rivals, however, as it expands into new markets such as cloud computing and artificial intelligence.

The firm was founded in Cambridge by 12 technology experts in 1990. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and Nasdaq in 1998. SoftBank bought it for £24billion in 2016 in a deal waved through by then PM Theresa May and her chancellor Philip Hammond.