FILE PHOTO-The Arm Ltd logo and a U.S. flag are seen in this illustration taken March 6, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
(Reuters) -SoftBank-owned chip designer Arm on Monday disclosed a modest 1% fall in annual revenue as it made public the paperwork for a U.S. listing that is expected to be the year's biggest initial public offering.
Arm's sales declined to $2.68 billion in the year ended March 31, hurt by a slump in global smartphone shipments. Sales for the quarter ended June 30 fell 2.5% to $675 million.
Its listing is expected to bring back to life a lackluster IPO market, which has over the last year seen some big startups hold back their listing plans due to market volatility and risk-off sentiment.
"We see a decent pipeline of pre-IPO companies sitting on the fence between a listing in 2023 or 2024. While Arm is a unique asset, its reception will tell us a lot about market sentiment," said Matthew Kennedy, analyst at IPO-research firm Renaissance Capital.
The company, whose chip technology powers most of smartphones including iPhones, did not reveal the number of shares it was selling and the pricing of its offering.
SoftBank is reportedly chasing a valuation of between $60 billion and $70 billion for the company in the IPO, which is expected in September.
It had earlier sought to raise between $8 billion to $10 billion through the listing, but sources said the amount dropped last week after it took a 25% stake in Arm it did not directly own from its Saudi-backed Vision Fund.
Hopes of a rebound in IPO activity has been underpinned by strong debuts from Johnson & Johnson's spinoff Kenvue and Mediterranean restaurant chain Cava.
Traditional listings have raised $10.25 billion so far this year as of Aug. 20, excluding blank-check deals, almost double the level seen in 2022, Dealogic data showed.
SoftBank has also been in talks with several technology companies to make them cornerstone investors in Arm ahead of its IPO, including Amazon.com and Nvidia, Reuters has reported.
It acquired Arm for $32 billion in 2016 and struck a blockbuster deal four years later to sell it to Nvidia. The buyout was, however, later terminated due to regulatory hurdles.
The value of the cash-and-stock deal with Nvidia that was announced in 2020 was originally pegged at about $40 billion, but rose later in line with gains in the chipmaker's shares.
Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Barclays and Mizuho are the lead underwriters of the offering.
Arm said it expects to list on the Nasdaq and trade under the ticker symbol 'ARM'.
(Reporting by Manya Saini and Jaiveer Shekhawat in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Maju Samuel)
