Brenda Goh, Jane Lanhee Lee

SHANGHAI, (Reuters) – Arm Ltd announced Friday that its Chinese joint venture has replaced its CEO. This is a significant step in resolving a dispute lasting two years which threatened to block the plans of the UK-based chip design company for a stock exchange listing.

SoftBank’s spokesperson said that Arm China’s Board unanimously voted to nominate Eric Chen and Liu Renchen as co-CEOs of Arm China, taking over Allen Wu.

According to the spokesperson, Liu has been accepted as Arm China’s legal representative by Shenzhen.

Arm China’s business model won’t change. A spokesperson for Arm China stated, “The CEO changes will have no effect on the ecosystem and supply chains.”

Allen Wu and Arm China did not respond immediately to our requests for comment. SoftBank Group Corp of Japan declined to comment.

SoftBank canceled its $80 billion blockbuster Arm sale to Nvidia (NASDAQ) Corp in February citing regulatory issues. Arm seeks to be listed before March 2023.

For the Japanese conglomerate, the Arm sale collapse was a setback in its efforts to generate cash at a time when portfolio values are already under threat.

Arm China is a joint venture of Arm Ltd and Hopu Investment based in Shanghai. It attempted to expel Wu in 2020 citing “conflicts”

Arm refused to resign and maintained control over the company. This made Arm’s attempts to audit the financials of the unit, which was crucial for its planned IPO, more difficult.

Wu stated to ijiwei.com on Thursday that Arm’s and SoftBank were trying to get him out of China.

Liu is Vice Dean at Shenzhen’s Research Institute of Tsinghua University. Chen is a managing Partner at SoftBank Vision Fund.