ARM thrives as it inhabits Apple's core products

Call it the iPad effect: the British designer of chips forthe Apple tablet yesterday saw its shares surge as much as 7 per cent after strong sales in the past quarter.

ARM Holdings' revenues rose 21 per cent to £137m in the three months to December, with pre-tax profits leaping by 42 per cent to £49.6m.

Annual profits jumped to £157m against £110m at the Cambridge-based firm, which designs chips for a raft of electronic devices from digital TVs to smartphones.

ARM's growth was not a surprise, since Apple, one of its clients, reported record sales of iPhones and iPads last week. But analysts said ARM had beaten their forecasts.

Warren East, chief executive, said ARM was grabbing market share, and revenues from royalties were ahead of rivals.

ARM is providing chip designs to clients including Samsung, LG, Microsoft and Fujitsu. Samsung and LG are launching "smart" internet-connected TVs which will use ARM processors.

Mr East reckons ARM should meet forecasts for 2012 if the global economy does not deteriorate sharply. The shares ended up 12p at 609.75p.