A SoftBank Corp. store in Tokyo.
Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota / Bloomberg
Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota / Bloomberg
SoftBank Group Corp. plans to raise up to $ 630 million through two more blank check companies, capitalizing on record investor demand for vehicles.
The Tokyo-based technology conglomerate said it would set up special-purpose acquisition companies less than two months after presenting its $ 525 million blank check company. SPACs seek to merge with private companies, leaving them they are publicly traded avoiding some of the uncertainties of an initial public offering. Vehicles have become a popular form for business-backed emerging companies listed in public markets. More than $ 35 billion has been raised by the 117 SPACs that have been listed on U.S. stock exchanges this year, according to data collected by Bloomberg.
The new SoftBank vehicles, SVF Investment Corp. 2 and 3, will address the same areas of technology as the former, including mobile communications and artificial intelligence, according to presentations Friday at the Securities and Exchange Commission. Because SPACs are of different sizes, they can work with companies of different maturity.
SVF 2 has signed a forward purchase agreement in which it has pledged between $ 100 million and $ 150 million in capital to merge with another company, according to its brochure. SVF 3 has entered into a forward purchase agreement in which it has pledged between $ 150 million and $ 200 million in capital to merge with another company, according to its brochure.
For the two new vehicles, each SPAC unit will consist of one share and one-fifth of a warranty. Citigroup Inc., UBS, Deutsche Bank AG, Cantor Fitzgerald and Mizuho Securities advise the lists.
The SVF 2 management committee is headed by Munish Varna, managing partner of SoftBank’s Vision Fund, while the SVF 3 management committee is led by Ioannis Pipilis. SoftBank the first SPAC is headed by Vision Fund CEO Rajeev Misra. The CFO of Vision Fund, Navneet Govil, is CFO of the three SPACs. All are overseen by SoftBank Investment Advisers, which also runs the company’s Vision Fund.
Having three SPAC launches SoftBank into a growing collection of companies with multiple blank check vehicles, including investor Chamath Palihapitya’s Gores group and share capital Hedosophia.