A SoftBank Corp. store from Tokyo.
Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota / Bloomberg
Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota / Bloomberg
SoftBank Group Corp. plans to raise up to $ 630 million through two other empty check companies, capitalizing on record demand from vehicle investors.
The Tokyo technology conglomerate said it would set up special-purpose procurement companies less than two months after it applied to set up a $ 525 million company. SPACs seek to merge with private companies, allowing them be publicly traded, while avoiding some of the uncertainty of an initial public offering. Vehicles have become a popular way to list risky startups on public markets. More than $ 35 billion has been raised from the 117 SPACs that went public on U.S. stock markets this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
New SoftBank vehicles, SVF Investment Corp. deposits with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday. Because SPACs are different sizes, they can work with companies of different maturity.
SVF 2 has entered into a forward purchase agreement in which it has committed capital between 100 and 150 million USD for the moment when it combines with another company, according to its prospectus. SVF 3 has entered into a forward purchase agreement, in which it has invested between 150 and 200 million dollars in capital for the moment when it combines with another company, according to its prospectus.
For both new vehicles, each SPAC unit will consist of one share and one-fifth of a mandate. Citigroup Inc., UBS, Deutsche Bank AG, Cantor Fitzgerald and Mizuho Securities offer listing advice.
The management committee of SVF 2 is chaired by Munish Varna, a management partner at SoftBank’s Vision Fund, while the management committee of SVF 3 is chaired by Ioannis Pipilis. SoftBank the first SPAC is headed by the executive director of the Vision Fund, Rajeev Misra. The Chief Financial Officer of the Vision Navneet Govil Fund is the CFO of all three SPACs. All are supervised by SoftBank Investment Advisers, which also runs the Vision Fund.
With three SPACs, it is launching SoftBank into a growing collection of companies with several vehicles without verification, including Gores Group and Hedosophia Social Capital of investor Chamath Palihapitya.