SoftBank Group seeks $7.5-billion loan secured by planned Arm sale

SoftBank Group is in talks with banks for a loan of about $7.5 billion tied to the Japanese conglomerate’s planned sale of Arm to Nvidia. Mizuho Bank is coordinating the deal. The proceeds would provide investment funds for SoftBank’s Vision Fund operation, and the collateral would be receivables from the cash portion of the proposed Arm sale.

A loan of that size would be among SoftBank’s biggest in dollars, following a record facility recently. The company increased a margin loan backed by shares in Alibaba Group Holding to $10 billion, people familiar said earlier in June. It also priced the biggest Japanese corporate bond deal of the year last week, when it sold 405 billion yen ($3.7 billion) of debt securities.

Nvidia agreed in September to buy SoftBank’s chip division Arm for $40 billion. The deal is awaiting regulatory approval. Last week, Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang said he is still confident that regulators will green-light the acquisition.

Source: Business Standard