SoftBank Group Lines Up 11 Lenders for Arm’s $8 Billion Loan

(Bloomberg) -- Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. has lined up banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. for an $8 billion term loan secured by the shares of its unit Arm Ltd.

Barclays Plc, Banco Santander SA, BNP Paribas SA, Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are also among the 11 lenders involved, a spokesperson for the Japanese company said, confirming a Bloomberg report citing people familiar with the matter. 

The loan agreement comes as Masayoshi Son’s technology investment company is seeking a valuation of at least $60 billion for when Arm goes public, Bloomberg reported late last month.

SoftBank’s request for a margin loan will test banks’ appetite for riskier forms of financing after some high-profile blow ups in recent years. This isn’t the first time Son has linked mandates for initial public offerings to margin loans. 

In 2018 it lined up commitments for a loan of $9 billion for its Vision Fund, provided by advisory firms including arrangers of its Japanese wireless business’s IPO, who had been asked to lend to other parts of the parent company’s empire, Bloomberg reported.

Initial offerings globally have had one of the worst starts to the year ever amid a rout in technology stocks, concerns about rising interest rates and geopolitical tensions. That makes mandates like Arm particularly sought after by investment banks. 

Other lenders involved are:

• Daiwa Securities Group
• Deutsche Bank AG
• Mizuho Financial Group
• Natixis SA
• Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.

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