Arm's full-year revenue fell 1% ahead of IPO - source

By Anirban Sen and Manya Saini

(Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp's Arm Ltd is expected to report a revenue decline of about 1% in the year ended March, when the chip designer reveals its initial public offering (IPO) filing on Monday, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Arm's sales fell to $2.68 billion in the 12 months ended March 31, hurt by a slump in global smartphone shipments, the source said, requesting anonymity. Sales for the quarter ended June 30 fell 2.5% to $675 million.

In May, SoftBank reported that revenue for the year at Arm had grown 5.7% under International Financial Reporting Standards. Arm will disclose its latest financials next week under the U.S. accounting standards, the source added.

Arm, which is preparing to list its shares on the Nasdaq as soon as next month, declined to comment.

Global chipmakers have recently signaled the beginning of the end of a semiconductor supply glut, but the outlook for demand from customers outside the artificial intelligence (AI) industry remains gloomy.

All the major markets for chips - smartphones, PCs and data centers - have shrunk this year, as both corporate customers and consumers scale back spending amid a weak global economy, high inflation and rising interest rates.

Earlier on Friday, Reuters reported that SoftBank had acquired the 25% stake in Arm it did not directly own from its Vision Fund unit in a deal that valued the chip designer at $64 billion.

Reuters had previously reported that SoftBank was aiming to list Arm at a valuation of $60 billion to $70 billion in the IPO.

Arm's IPO preparations are being led by Goldman Sachs Group, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays Plc and Mizuho Financial Group.

The details of Arm's financials were first reported by Bloomberg News.

(Reporting by Anirban Sen in New York and Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)