Arm just priced its IPO that is 'expected to be a very big deal'

Arm wants to raise up to $4.87 billion as it goes live on Nasdaq this month, as per its filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission on Tuesday.

Arm is seeking $52 billion in valuation

The chip design firm will list a total of 95.5 million American depositary shares at a price of between $47 and $51.

Top end of that range translates to a valuation of about $52 billion versus $32 billion that Softbank paid for it in 2016. According to Avery Spear – a Senior Analyst at Renaissance Capital:

Arm saw its revenue inch down ever so slightly to $2.68 billion in its fiscal 2023 – which was a record number nonetheless.

Arm will be the biggest tech IPO of 2023

Softbank will continue to own about 90.6% of Arm after the IPO – but if underwriters exercise the option to buy another $735 million worth of its shares, ownership of the Japanese investment holding company will reduce to 89.9%.

Note that Arm is expected to be the biggest tech IPO of this year. On CNBC’s “Worldwide Exchange”, analyst Avery Spear added today:

Reports earlier this year said big names like Nvidia and Amazon wanted to be an anchor investor in Arm that powers almost every premium smartphone around the world.