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

(Adds details on Raine, adds NEW YORK to dateline)

LONDON/NEW YORK, July 18 (Reuters) - Bankers are set to share up to $120 million in fees thanks to SoftBank Group Corp (Xetra: 891624 - news) 's planned $32 billion acquisition of British chip designer ARM Holdings (LSE: ARM.L - news) , 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 (NYSE: GS-PB - news) and Lazard were the lead financial advisers to ARM and will receive the lion's share of the money, the estimates showed. UBS (LSE: 0QNR.L - news) and Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) were also on the ticket.

SoftBank was advised by U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . boutique the Raine Group and UK outfit Robey Warshaw, plus Japan's Mizuho Securities.

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. It was also a key adviser on SoftBank's $20 billion investment in 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 (Dusseldorf: TOC.DU - news) , 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 (Xetra: A0ET6Q - news) on its acquisition of British energy firm BG netted $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 $11.5 billion. This is in line with a 23 percent decrease in dealmaking this year.

(Reporting by Freya Berry in London and Liana B. Baker in San Francisco; Editing by Keith Weir and Matthew Lewis)