SoftBank's ARM buy may net bankers $120 million in fees - estimates

LONDON (Reuters) - Bankers are set to share up to $120 million in fees thanks to SoftBank Group Corp's planned acquisition of British chip designer ARM Holdings, according to estimates on Monday.

Seven finance houses will divide the proceeds for working on the 24.3 billion pound ($32 billion) purchase by the Japanese company. Each side could pay out $50-60 million in fees to their respective advisers, the estimates by ThomsonReuters/Freeman Consulting showed.

Goldman Sachs and Lazard were the lead financial advisers to ARM and will receive the lion's share of the money, according to the estimates. UBS and Barclays were also on the ticket.

SoftBank is being advised by U.S. boutique The Raine Group and UK outfit Robey Warshaw, plus Japanese bank Mizuho Securities.

There will be a further windfall from the bridge financing, which is forecast to yield some $45 million in arrangement fees.

The transaction will give some succour to European bankers who had feared that Britain's vote to leave the European Union could leave a blank space in their deals calendar for the rest of the year.

Last year was a bumper year for mergers and acquisitions, providing plenty of paydays for advisers.

Bankers advising Royal Dutch Shell on its acquisition of British energy firm BG netted some $182.6 million in fees, according to estimates at the time.

Global M&A advisory fees fell 15 percent in the first half of 2016 against the same period last year, totalling some $11.5 billion. That is roughly in line with a 23 percent decrease in dealmaking this year, according to Thomson Reuters data.

($1 = 0.7554 pounds)

(Reporting by Freya Berry; Editing by Keith Weir)