SoftBank’s Shares Slip as Excitement Around Arm’s IPO Fades

SoftBank Group Corp.’s stock fell as much as 4.3%, the biggest intraday fall in more than a month, as profit-taking weighed on newly-debuted chip unit Arm Holdings Plc’s shares.

Arm’s shares declined around 4.5% for two straight days after surging 25% in their first day of trading on Nasdaq on Thursday. Arm’s $5 billion initial public offering — the year’s biggest — had been widely seen as a win for SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son following a string of poorly-timed bets on startups.

The Tokyo-based tech investor said in a statement it expects to book proceeds of $5.12 billion, minus expenses, in the current quarter from Arm’s IPO. But that gain won’t boost SoftBank’s consolidated earnings, because Arm remains a subsidiary. Instead, that sum will be booked as a capital surplus, SoftBank said. The company had a cash pile of about $42 billion as of June.

A longtime investor in artificial intelligence-related tech, SoftBank has been accumulating cash to shore up its bottom line, which has been hurt by billions of dollars of losses at its Vision Fund. Son and his lieutenants have said they’re prepared to go on the offensive again.