Softbank has appointed Goldman Sachs to look at options for the future of Arm, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The options include a full or partial public offering for the company.

Softbank is engaged in a cash-raising exercise to raise $41 billion with $21 billion to come from the sale of its stake in T-Mobile. 25% of Arm is held by the Vision Fund and 51% of Arm China, which provides over 20% of Arm’s revenues, is held by Chinese investors. The Arm China jv is in chaos with the CEO refusing to leave after being sacked by Arm. So a public offering of Arm will require some structural re-alignments. It would be expected that China would show interest in buying a controlling interest, or the whole of Arm, to feed its mobile phone companies with cores. Apple, with its increasing use of Arm cores, could also be interested in taking a stake. Softbank paid $32 billion for Arm in 2016 – a price seen as unreasonably high at the time – but now could be a good time to sell it on at a profit.