According to Bloomberg, the UK government’s efforts to push for a UK listing may have succeeded as SoftBank, which bought the company back in 2016, is said to be reconsidering earlier plans to only list shares on the US market.
New York is expected to see an initial public offering, but it seems that London may secure a secondary listing which would be seen as a welcome boost to The City by officials who have been trying to encourage more tech listings in London.
However, nothing has been finalised and the plans for the listing could still change but, even so, the fact that this has surfaced will be welcome news both for the UK government and for The City.
Analysts have estimated that Arm, whose clients include the likes of Apple, Samsung and Google, could be worth up to $40bn when it goes public.
The UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, is said to have been lobbying in support of the London listing backing the efforts of the London Stock Exchange, government departments and senior officials.
It will be interesting to see if his involvement will help or hinder these efforts.
Earlier this year SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son, had appeared to suggest that London would not be considered as, “the Nasdaq stock exchange in the US, which is at the centre of global hi-tech, would be most suitable”.
To date The City has failed to gain any real momentum in attracting tech companies and that despite government efforts which have included giving founders more control through dual-class share structures and slashing the number of shares required to be offered to the public.
