SoftBank Group Corp. plans to file this Monday to raise at least $ 500 million through a blank check company, said a person familiar with the situation, who took advantage of investor enthusiasm for the controversial listing vehicles.
The special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, will be overseen by SoftBank Investment Advisers, which also manages the Vision Fund. It will be used to buy a company in which SoftBank has not previously invested, according to the person who asked not to be designated, as the plans are private. The news of the moment was the first Axios reported Sunday.
Kenichi Yuasa, a spokesman for Tokyo-based SoftBank Group, declined to comment.
Rajeev Misra, the head of the Vision Fund, originally revealed the SPAC’s plans in an interview with Bloomberg News at the Milken Institute virtual conference in October. At the time, he said the details would be announced within two weeks. It is unclear what caused the delay.
The blank verification company will combine the Vision Fund’s experience in technology startups with SoftBank’s relatively new emphasis on public stock trading.
SPACs ask investors to invest money in stocks before they know which company they will return. The SPAC manager then chooses a company, usually a private trading company, and pursues a merger that allows the start to be made public and the capital raised to be inherited.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. i Citigroup Inc. manages the deal, Axios reported.
SPACs have been criticized as a way to make companies more expensive than traditional initial public offerings and have been linked to sparkling valuations. But the mechanism can also allow experienced sponsors to help guide growing businesses. For SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son, who has supported hundreds of companies in his career, creating this vehicle can give him a new way to invest in nascent businesses while leveraging money for public markets.
– With the assistance of Takahiko Hyuga