The opening trades stand as a vindication for Masayoshi Son, SoftBank’s founder, chairman and chief executive officer. In the final price-setting meeting Wednesday, some bankers and executives made the case for pricing the shares above the marketed range but Son said it wasn’t worth risking a healthy debut for US$100 million or so in additional proceeds, Bloomberg News reported.
Arm Holdings Plc gained as much as 15% in its trading debut after raising US$4.87 billion ($6.63 billion) in the year’s biggest initial public offering.
The chip designer, owned by SoftBank Group Corp., sold 95.5 million American depositary shares at the top of a marketed range of US$47 to US$51 each. The shares opened trading Thursday at US$56.10 and were selling for US$58.86 at 12.19pm in New York, giving Arm a market value of about US$61 billion. Including restricted share units, Arm’s fully diluted valuation of almost US$63 billion.
