LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bankers are set to share up to $120 million in fees thanks to SoftBank Group Corp's (>> SoftBank Group Corp) planned $32 billion acquisition of British chip designer ARM Holdings (>> ARM Holdings plc), according to estimates on Monday.
Seven finance houses will divide the proceeds from the purchase by the Japanese company. Each side could pay out $50 million to $60 million in fees to their respective advisers, estimates by ThomsonReuters/Freeman Consulting showed.
The deal, announced early Monday, is one of the largest this year and represents a large payday for bankers involved, especially for boutiques who generate the bulk of their fees from working on M&A transactions.
Goldman Sachs (>> Goldman Sachs Group Inc) and Lazard were the lead financial advisers to ARM and will receive the lion's share of the money, the estimates showed. UBS (>> UBS Group AG) and Barclays (>> Barclays PLC) were also on the ticket.
SoftBank was advised by U.S. boutique the Raine Group and UK outfit Robey Warshaw, plus Japan's Mizuho Securities [MZFGX.UL].
Raine, a U.S. boutique investment bank, founded by former tech, media and telecom bankers from bulge bracket firms in 2009, has emerged as one of SoftBank's most trusted financial advisers. Raine co-founder Jeff Sine and Softbank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son have a relationship spanning more than a decade.
The ARM deal comes less than a month after Raine advised SoftBank on an $8.6 billion divestiture of "Clash of Clans" mobile game maker Supercell to Tencent Holdings (>> Tencent Holdings Ltd). It was also a key adviser on SoftBank's $20 billion investment in Sprint Corp (>> Sprint Corp) that closed in 2013.
Advising on SoftBank's biggest-ever deal moves Raine up to No. 33 in worldwide M&A rankings by Thomson Reuters, ahead of U.S. boutique rivals Qatalyst Partners and Allen & Co.
Robey Warshaw, SoftBank's other boutique adviser, is now ranked No. 25.
BREXIT M&A FEARS EASE
There will be a further windfall from the bridge financing, which is forecast to yield $45 million in arrangement fees.
The transaction will help European bankers who had feared that Britain's vote to leave the European Union could leave a blank space in their deals calendar.
Last year was a bumper year for M&A.
Bankers advising Royal Dutch Shell
Global M&A advisory fees fell 15 percent in the first half of 2016 against the same period last year, totaling $11.5 billion. This is in line with a 23 percent decrease in deal making this year.
(Reporting by Freya Berry in London and Liana B. Baker in San Francisco; Editing by Keith Weir and Matthew Lewis)